Exporting 3D Contour Lines from GIS to 3D CAD format files

Question

I am requesting from our GIS department to have 3D contour lines exported from ArcGIS into a usable 3d Cadd file.   I was hoping to use them in either Autocad or MicroStation (*.dgn, *.dwg, or *.dxf)

Not being an ArcGIS user, is this even possible?  If it is possible, does anyone have any step by step instructions on "How To".

MichaelContratto · Answer

Go to ArcToolbox > Conversion Tools > To CAD > Export to CAD. Here is a link to the documentation for this tool. http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00120000001n000000.htm Regards, Eric Eric, I do not use ArcGis but depend on getting contour lines in .dxf format for use in OCAD. OCAD is a program to make maps for oreinteering. We work with the local county GIS (PeoriaGIS) to get the contours in .dxf format. They sent us files earlier this year and they were fine. Last month they did the , I quote "The exact same thing" and the files do not work. The contours come out as polylines but they do not have field 38 which is the elevation of the contour line. We have also gotten contours in .dxf format from two local cities and both of these had the correct format. Here is an extract from the file that worked Extract from Jubilee file: ########################## AcDbPolyline 90 <- The Number of Vertices flag 583 <- The Number of Vertices flag 70 0 43 0.0 38 <- The Elevation flag 612.0 <- The Elevation Value 10 <- The X Value Flag 2386302.028874598 <- The X Value Flag 20 <- The Y Value Flag 1517499.999887429 <- The Y Value 10 2386301.690949522 20 1517501.495912425 10 2386299.30808254 20 1517504.652094021 10 2386296.49115454 ########################### This is an extract from the file that did not work. Notice no 38 field Extract from the Wildlife Prairie Park File ########################### AcDbPolyline 90 234 70 1 43 0.0 10 2412105.140975837 20 1480678.342197761 10 2412106.589463755 20 1480678.551514924 10 ############################# I spoke with the city that gave us the good data this week and tried to talk the local county guy through it and got the same 2D data with no elevation. I wrote him and he responded "Mike, I do not have a great deal of knowledge about CAD data, but I can tell you from looking at the DXF and DWG files in ArcCatalog, that a field called "Elevations" is populated with elevation data. There is also a field called "Elevation" that does not have any values. Will the "Elevations" field containing the elevation data work for your purposes? I double-checked my work in exporting the data to CAD format, and the result was the same as the data that we delivered to you." Any idea on what he is doing? We need to get a bunch more maps and the county is the only source. Thanks! Mike C.

EricRice · Answer

Go to ArcToolbox > Conversion Tools > To CAD > Export to CAD.  Here is a link to the documentation for this tool.

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00120000001n000000.htm

Regards,
Eric

JakubSisak · Answer

They can be exported directly to DXF or DWG from ArcGIS.