Indiana University

Migrating from

AutoCAD to a Geodatabase

Theresa Thompson

ththomp@indiana.edu

Total enrollment 2004-05 (7 campuses):

92,070 students

15,831 faculty and staff

714 buildings (7 campuses)

26,525,251 gross sq. feet of building space

2,963 acres

For the Bloomington campus

13 Utility SystemsChilled Water, Condensate, Communications,Electric, Exterior Lighting, Irrigation, Natural Gas, Sewer, Steam, Storm Water, Tunnel, Telephone, Water

Basemap

Indiana UniversityIndiana University

Utility Information GroupUtility Information Group

AutoCAD Map linked to Access via object data

GIS database

Database forms

Why move from AutoCAD Mapto a SDE Geodatabase environment?

Ease-of-Use for Editors Centralized Database/Graphics Environment Enterprise level data sharing Easier to bring CAD into ArcGIS than GIS into

CAD without conversion

IU GIS system• Windows based ArcGIS 9.1 – editors

Windows ArcReader 9.1 - viewersUnix ArcSDE/Oracle for geodatabaseUnix ArcIMS for web mappingTesting ArcGIS Server

Geodatabase – IU BloomingtonData Layers = over 58 basemap

over 100 utilities

Data Preparation for moving from AutoCAD Map to a Geodatabase

Database model in placecreate a geodatabase and set up boundary polygon for spatial reference

data naming/object/relationship standards for featuresdomain tables (lookup tables)

Clean your CAD and Attribute data before you convertobjects on correct layers / CAD Standardscorrect blocks / object linking

Expect data problems: there is no “perfect conversion”

http://downloads.esri.com/support/whitepapers/ao_/CAD_Translation_in_Geoprocessing_1004_J9324.pdf

Read this!

Approaches to converting CAD

CAD with no data linking but with block attributes– use Direct Read CAD file export into geodatabase (via ArcCatalog / ArcToolbox)

CAD linked to database/object data – use AutoCAD Map export to shapefiles or coverage, then load into SDE/Oracle

CAD annotation – use ArcToolbox \ Conversion Tools \To Geodatabase \ Import CAD Annotation

CAD text or blocks linked to polygons – use ArcToolbox\ CAD Translation \ PolygonsfromCADLinesandPoints

Simple CAD with no data linking but with block

attributes

Use Direct Read CAD file export into geodatabase (via ArcCatalog)

“The direct read functionality treats the CAD file

as a database of spatial features”

CAD files are rich in attribute data – don’t lose this during conversion

Filter out certain

CAD blocks

Rename field

names

Lists all the block names

in the dwg

“Text_” field = blockname

Attribute fields in feature class have new field

names

CAD linked to database/object data – use AutoCAD Map export to shapefiles

or coverage, then load into SDE/Oracle

There are currently no ESRI tools out there

to bring in database linked attributes via object

data or link templates in AutoCAD Map

AutoCAD Map 2006 has direct read capability to SDE/Oracle

Narrow what you convert in AutoCAD Map

by a query

Make sure your data source is connected and

the link templates you need are

active

For complex closed polylines you might need to convert to a coverage first, then geodatabase or shapefile

Select both drawing property attributes and

link template attributes to migrate over.

Here is your chance to

change the Output Field

Names

AutoCAD dwg property attributes and linked database attributes are now part of the

converted feature class.

Create a new personal geodatabase or new feature layers in SDE to import your

shapefile data into

Here is another chance to

change the field names or

decide not to bring in some attribute fields

your geodatabase

You can do similar functions several

ways...this time you use the Export to

Geodatabase command.

CAD annotation – use ArcToolbox \

Conversion Tools \ to Geodatabase \

Import CAD Annotation

Finally! A great tool for converting AutoCAD

Text into geodatabase annotation.

Preview AutoCAD

text to make sure it isn’t

mtext

You need to explode all mtext

for conversion. Set up a selection filter

for only mtext, then explode this.

Once you explode the mtext, save the dwg and

preview again in ArcCatalog

Be sure to select the dwg file annotation class for

conversion

You need to determine a

reference scale. We use 1:5000 for our

campus maps based on units of

feet.

This is how the converted CAD

annotation looks in the geodatabase

annotation feature class

You will be able to edit geodatabase annotation easily in a ArcGIS edit session with Annotation edit tools

CAD text or blocks linked to polygons

– use ArcToolbox\ CAD Translation \

PolygonsfromCADLinesandPoints

There are several powerful geoprocessing

tools/scripts in the CAD Translation toolbox.

Download this free

ArcToolbox

Notice the parcel number is just

text, not a block attribute.

We have filtered out just the parcel number layer to pull as an attribute for the

parcel polygons

Parcel polygons now have the

enclosed text from the CAD dwg as a

parcel attribute

Approaches to exporting from GIS to CAD

Set up a CAD template .dwg (with preinserted blocks, layers, linetypes)

Create geodatabase fields for CAD mapping like LAYER, ROTATION, LINETYPE, CADTYPE, REFNAME

For conversion to CAD – use ArcToolbox \ Conversion Tools \ Export to Geodatabase \ Export to CAD

Select all the Chilled

Water feature

classes to export into one CAD

file

Exported from SDE – this CAD file now has mapped blocks and attributes, layers and

linetypes automatically from the CAD template file (seed file)

For mapping geodatabase attributes back to CAD you need to make sure you have fields for

CADtype = insert

and the

REFNAME = blockname

In an ArcGIS edit session – use the Field Calculator to

populate the REFNAME with the

correct CAD blockname

2 new geodatabase fields you created to

export to CAD

Create a AutoCAD template file – make it

read-only

Point feature class in SDE is exported to new CAD file and block attributes automatically

populated to block inserts.

Note: open up newly created dwg in AutoCAD first, zoom extents and save before viewing in ArcCatalog.

Questions ???

ththomp@indiana.edu