idea Bring back ability to convert CAD feature classes to project gdb automatically in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Bring back ability to convert CAD feature classes to project gdb automatically

AdrianWelsh — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 13:07:28 GMT

In ArcGIS Pro 3.0, this ability was removed. See the documentation:

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/2.9/help/data/cad/cad-options.htm

This was a very helpful feature that automatically converted the CAD (dwg or dgn) drawing into separate feature classes based on the CAD drawings level or layer. I know that that "work around" is to use the geoprocessing tool of CAD to Geodatabase but this is very simplified compared to what it used to do. This tool only breaks down the CAD layers into very generic points, lines, and polygons with dumbed down symbology.

Re: Bring back ability to convert CAD feature classes to project gdb automatically

HJSchneidt — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 07:56:51 GMT

I agree. Please reintroduce. Working in a BIM/CAD/GIS environment my daily work is really more complicated by not having the automated conversion possibility.

Re: Bring back ability to convert CAD feature classes to project gdb automatically

DavidLight — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 02:04:43 GMT

CAD to GDB Converted Annotation is unusable in Pro 3.x unless I am missing something.

How are GIS users symbolizing and adding CAD converted to GDB in ArcGIS Pro? We successfully used DGNs converted to GDB in ArcMap 10.8.2 with a good representation of the original CAD including the Annotations which could be symbolized by layer and color.

Since our “upgrade” to ArcGIS Pro 3.3 we cannot seem to get a representation of the CAD Annotation in Pro.

Re: Bring back ability to convert CAD feature classes to project gdb automatically - Status changed to: Closed

MichaelDavidsonPM — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:41:55 GMT

Hi @AdrianWelsh,

Thanks for posting this idea. Our reason for removing the setting in the Options was due to instances where the authored CAD content was not geolocated. For these instances, the automatic conversion option in ArcGIS Pro led to user frustration with GIS features needing to be translated, rotated, scaled.

In other words, this led to instances where users had to manually carry out each step of these transformations to GIS features rather than being able to use the CAD Georeferencing toolset.

We are working to motivate geolocation best practices when authoring CAD datasets. To prevent those instances described above that resulted in user frustration, we are holding off on reintroducing the option.