topic Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD? in CAD/GIS Data Integration Questions

How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

DanielDuffee — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 09:49:54 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to export a polygon layer from ArcGIS Online into AutoCAD 2017, however all the guides I can find seem to be fixated on ArcGIS Desktop and do not seem to apply to the online version. I've tried downloading the shapefile and importing that into a CAD drawing using the IMPORT command and finding the downloaded shapefile (.shp) and I also tried the .shx file, both to no avail. Clearly I'm missing some vital step(s) and getting this wrong, but there don't seem to be any current/relevant video guides or written guides that seem to even start with a process that I can see in ArcGIS Online. Would somebody please show me how I can get this right?

Thank you in advance.

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

AdrianWelsh — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 15:53:12 GMT

Daniel,

I am not sure that the issue lies within AGOL.

Are you able to import shapefiles normally into AutoCAD, regardless of AGOL?

When you downloaded the shapefile from AGOL, do you have all related components in one folder together (meaning the .shp, .shx, .sbn, .prj, .dbf, etc.)? All of those components have to be together in the same folder in order for the shapefile to work.

Do you have all the needed shapefile components (like listed above)?

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

DanielDuffee — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 07:31:52 GMT

Adrian,

Thank you for replying, this is the contents of the folder when I downloaded the shapefile.

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 16:28:05 GMT

Daniel,

I'm not sure what those last two objects are since they don't have file extensions. If it's ok, can you share the contents of your shapefile here?

Questions, have you been able to open other shapefiles in CAD?

Can you open this shapefile somewhere else to verify that it works and is valid?

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

DanielDuffee — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 07:15:42 GMT

I cannot share the contents of the shapefile as the data is sensitive.

The bottom two files are .shp and .shx respectively.

No I have never tried to extract shapefiles to CAD before.

I have no idea how to open the shapefile anywhere else. This is why I tried asking for help.

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

AdrianWelsh — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 16:16:53 GMT

Daniel Duffee, well, the bare minimum for a shapefile to work are the .shp, .dbf, and .shx files, so it looks like you have enough to make it work. Without seeing your data, it's hard to tell how valid it is.

When you say you cannot see your data, it is possible that the projections are not lining up from the AGOL file and your CAD drawing. When you import into CAD, can you "zoom to full extent" (or whatever the command is in CAD) to see if the file did come in, just maybe in the wrong place?

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

DanielDuffee — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 08:24:26 GMT

Hi Adrian,

I can indeed ZOOM then EXTENTS after trying to IMPORT the files from the download folder, but the model space is still blank and black. When I try to use the IMPORT command CAD only lets me import one file at a time. I have tried importing them one by one and nothing seemed to happen. There must be something I’m missing. What I could really benefit from is a step-by-step process for how to get a polygon layer to show up in CAD. It is baffling that I cannot simply export a layer of shapes from one drawing program into a different drawing program that is also designed to deal with layers of shapes, in just one to two easy steps. Can you still help, Adrian?

Thanks for your efforts this far.

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

AdrianWelsh — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 18:48:34 GMT

Daniel Duffee, the issue I have is that I don't have AutoCAD to see what you're seeing and not seeing. The issue we have now is that I want to know if your shapefile is a valid shapefile and appears to look normal. To do that, we need to have something read this shapefile. You could zip it up (all of the contents) and try opening it in ArcGIS Online (documentation here: Shapefiles—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS ) or you could try opening it in a free reader, if you do not have ArcGIS Desktop: Free GIS Data Viewers ~ GIS Lounge

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

DanielDuffee — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 07:14:20 GMT

Hi Adrian,

I spoke to someone else about this who had the benefit of seeing it live. As it turns out there was something about AutoCAD not being able to deal with the data that AGOL exports, meaning that dedicated conversion software was required to allow AutoCAD to see it. Civil3D and other engineering specific bolt-on programs can accept it, but AutoCAD itself cannot. The issue has not been dealt with and now I know why the struggling was happening.

Thank you for trying, I really appreciate that you reached out. ☺

Daniel

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

AdrianWelsh — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 04:21:20 GMT

Thanks for letting me know. It's too bad AutoCAD can't read it natively. One more [late] suggestion. Have you tried installing the extension ArcGIS for AutoCAD? It may have a way to read in AGOL objects straight into the drawing (but I don't know since I can't test it).

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

KarenHodge — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 19:22:44 GMT

I have good news and not so good news for you.

First the good news. The pending release of ArcGIS for AutoCAD will be able to add a polygon feature layer from ArcGIS Online to your CAD drawing.

The not-so-good news is that the current release of ArcGIS for AutoCAD can't access services hosted by ArcGIS Online, only those on enterprise servers.

Re: How do I bring an ArcGIS Online polygon layer into AutoCAD?

ShruthyN — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 23:03:02 GMT

In AutoCAD did you try using a data connection to the shapefile? From the Data Connect window click on add data connection, there should be an option in the list to add a shapefile. Since all the contents of your shapefile is in one file location you should be able to connect to the shapefile. You will then be asked to set the projection for the shapefile if there is no projection file present. If there is a .prj file it will automatically detect the projection, otherwise you will need to select the projection from the drop down list. After this click add to map to add the contents of the map to AutoCAD. If you want to save the contents of the shapefile in a DWG, you can select all the features, right click and click on check out data. Then right click and click extract geometry from features. This will extract geometry from all the features to line work in AutoCAD format. You can then right click and click check in features to save the shapefile as it was. You can remove the data connection and your line work of the geometry will remain as is.