topic Re: CAD Blocks in Data Management Questions

CAD Blocks

TeresaSmithson2 — Tue, 29 May 2012 09:01:53 GMT

Software: Civil 3D 2012 and ArcGIS 10 Desktop. My CAD drawings have several unique blocks for common information, such as generators. I would like to use those blocks in ArcMAP. When I convert the drawing to the geodatabase, the polylines and their ArcGIS for CAD feature classes are coming in fine. The blocks come in as points that contain the block attribute information. The block linework only shows up in the polyline layer in ArcMap. If I can create a GIS symbol for each of the blocks and then assign the point symbol to the block symbol, that would be a perfect world. All I can find is some not very good ways to export the block as a bmp or emf file and create a marker. The problem with the marker is that is changes its size to the map scale. Well, a 40 foot generator is a 40 foot generator no mater what scale. So what I need is a way to convert the blocks to a vector based symbol. Anyway know a solution to this?

I have over 30 sites/drawing that I need to load to ArcMap. All of these will be updated in CAD and re-loaded to the GIS anywhere from monthly to quarterly. So this is not a "one-time" fix, but needs to be a system fix.

Re: CAD Blocks

TeresaSmithson2 — Thu, 31 May 2012 05:04:57 GMT

One small step toward a solution. Converting the dwg file to an emf and then setting the marker angle to the CAD angle works very nicely for depicting the CAD block, with one major problem - it will not set to an absolute size. So the relative/absolute is the problem here. Is there anyway of setting the marker to an absolute size?

Re: CAD Blocks

TeresaSmithson2 — Thu, 31 May 2012 06:38:08 GMT

SOLUTION , and it was so easy - DUH. I set the map's reference scale to what is my most common scale (1:1000) and then I size the emf created symbol to appear to the right size. I set the angle to the CAD angle and make it the point symbol based on the block name - viola!! I now have my beloved CAD blocks as point symbols in the GIS along with all of the attribute information that was entered in CAD.

I love when a plan comes together!