topic Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

JoshBryk — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 20:19:19 GMT

A Shapefile that was "mapexported" from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table. It will allow me to click add field, but when the field menu pops up, no new field has been added, and the "Add Field" button at the top of the screen has been grayed out. Is there any way to add new fields to this shape file? I need to create new fields and add text into the attribute table.

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

DanPatterson — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 20:22:30 GMT

Did you check the readonly attribute in Windows File Explorer?

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 21:13:39 GMT

What release and license level of ArcGIS Pro are you using? At ArcGIS Pro 2.4.1 there was BUG-000101840 - Unable to add fields via the New Field feature for shapefiles in ArcGIS Pro using an ArcGIS Pro Basic License.

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

JoshBryk — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 13:21:54 GMT

I am currently running ArcGIS Pro 2.3.3

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

JoshBryk — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 13:24:25 GMT

Yes, when I right click on the shape file in the file explorer and check properties, the "Read Only" box is unchecked.

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

DanPatterson — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 14:42:42 GMT

Just to confirm, you check the *.shp, *.shx, *.dbf and whatever other portions of the shapefile exist for the Read Only attribute being set

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

JoshBryk — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:39:22 GMT

A few of those were set to Read only, I unchecked the boxes and tried to add a field again, and I'm still having the same issue> I tried opening a new map with the same data now that it isn't read only as well, and there was no luck.

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

JoshBryk — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:41:25 GMT

As you can see the add field button isn't grayed out until the fields menu pops up.

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

DanPatterson — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:51:49 GMT

Use FeatureClassToFeatureClass tool to get the file into a geodatabase featureclass.

As for read-only attributes, they are checked at the operating system level using File Explorer, not the field view in Pro.

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

JoshBryk — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:08:44 GMT

Okay, so Following your instructions, It created a new layer in my drawing order, and I can add fields to this attribute table, as well as edit the contents. When I save the entire map again will the shapefile be updated with it to contain this new layer and attribute table? Or do I need to create a new shapefile from this layer?

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

JoshBryk — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:13:37 GMT

After opening a blank map and checking, it definitely does not update my shapefile, so I need to find a way to extract this new layer as a shapefile next.

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

DanPatterson — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:14:46 GMT

The new layer will be retained with the project.

Do you really have a need for shapefiles? And if you do, make sure that you have them within a folder in your project workspace folder because things will go bad if you try to move things around.

Good practice would be to keep files (featureclasses) in your project's geodatabase. Use your project's scratch gdb for junk. Make folders in your project's path to store other data (eg images, shapefiles, text, csv or spreadsheet files).

Re: Shapefile from autocad civil 3d 2019 wont allow me to add fields to the Attribute table

DanPatterson — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 16:16:52 GMT

You have to create a new shapefile.

Copy Features or FeatureClassToFeatureClassTool

The only way you add stuff to an existing file is within an edit session.