Best practices for sharing/editing GIS data using ArcGIS for AutoCAD?

Question

We have an SDE Database (Oracle) containing data for buildings. This includes building footprints, rooms and interior wall lines. I would like our engineering dept to be able to edit this data using AutoCAD when changes to the interior of buildings are made. I have published a feature service and and am able to bring this service into AutoCAD and edit it. The issue I have is all the features are white lines so the engineering dept cant decipher between a footprint, room or interior wall lines...they all look the same.  How do I insure the thematic display of this data is visible in AutoCAD?

Also, for multi-story buildings how do I enable the engineering dept to be able to set a definition query so only the level of interest is seen?

Randy_Garcia · Answer

With the definition query questions this is possible now but only through Autolisp. Check the topic here
https://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/arcgis-for-autocad/#/esri_webfeaturelayer_add_AutoLISP/061p0000004s000000/

An example would be

(esri_webfeaturelayer_add 
  "http://sampleserver6.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/MyBuilding/FeatureServer"
  (list (cons "DEFINITIONEXPRESSION" "FLOOR=3"))
)

Randy_Garcia · Answer

Adding to this. With the layers you bring in from a feature service we create corresponding AutoCAD layers. So when you bring in the Walls layer we create an AutoCAD layer called ESRI_walls (or something similar). You can edit the colors of the autocad layer esri_walls to match whatever style you want. If you want to set this up in advance I would create a template dwg with the esri_walls (and other esri_ layers ) created with the colors you want. When ArcGIS for AutoCAD adds the service in next time we will use the existing layers with your colors instead of creating new ones.

I hope that helps.

DanWade · Answer

Hello Tomas,

Thank you for using ArcGIS for AutoCAD! Other than the minor question here I am glad to hear your published services are working well for you. With the information provided in your post I am curious how the layer(s) were published and from where?

I ask because when you publish from ArcGIS Pro we can dictate how our feature classes will display, color, size, etc. so, I wonder how the feature classes were symbolized before publishing. On the other side I also wondering if perhaps any new objects/features were drawn in the CAD file on Layer 0 (which has the default color of white). Another words, what are the colors of the "footprints", "room" and Interior Walls" in both ArcGIS and AutoCAD? If you can go into a little more detail and add screen captures we can continue discussing this topic.

As for the secondary question about a definition query to display just the features that reside on level 1, 2, 3, etc. I would highly recommend you log a case with Esri Technical Support to work on this.

I look forward to hearing from you!