topic Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS in Data Management Questions

Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

ChrisSlinko — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 14:17:51 GMT

I'm trying to import a CAD .dwg drawing into ArcMap 10.1. When I added the .dwg to ArcMap it did not show any data. I spoke to an ESRI rep and they said to explode the drawing, purge and resave the drawing to a different drawing. I did that and it did not work. Does anyone have any other suggestions. Thanks, Chris

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

GastonIzaguirre — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 14:47:59 GMT

I'm trying to import a CAD .dwg drawing into ArcMap 10.1. When I added the .dwg to ArcMap it did not show any data. I spoke to an ESRI rep and they said to explode the drawing, purge and resave the drawing to a different drawing. I did that and it did not work. Does anyone have any other suggestions. Thanks, Chris

Check with which version of AutoCAD the DWG file was saved. In General, ArcGIS is not compatible with latest versions of AutoCAD, e.g. 2013, 2014. Try to save the DWG file to an older version, e.g. 2010 and then open this file in ArcMap.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

ChrisSlinko — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 16:54:59 GMT

gizagui Thank for the reply but I just tried to import an older version (2010) drawing and the same thing happened it imported but non of the lines have drawn in ArcMap.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

michaelcollins1 — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 18:29:24 GMT

Are the layers all imbedded into the DWG or are there xrefs? If there's xrefs, they won't show up.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

AdrienneMiller — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 18:31:38 GMT

I wonder if you have figured out a solution yet. Someone replied regarding xref issues, that may have been the issue, I don't know. Another possibility is that the data you want to see is in some format which will not convey directly.

I have been using Autocad map 3d 2014 to export shapefiles which I can use in ArcGIS. You can do that too, you can get a free trial version for a month. I am lucky to have a lot of years experience using Autcad though, dont know if you have that experience.

I found that I had to also download an object enabler from Autodesk to see some of the AECC objects in Autocad Map, the water line alignments I needed.

Even then, once I could see the AECC objects in Autocad Map, I found that I had to explode them before I could export them as shapefiles, and then I lost information I would have liked to save...such as station numbers and more.

I am still trying to figure out the best way to export the lines and attributes the way I want to. I am looking at an Autodesk Civil 3d free trial now, to see what export options I get there. It looks like I can export AECC objects, but Civil 3d doesn't provide the tool to export a shapefile..so it's back to Autocad Map for that part of the process.

One of these days I hope I can figure out the best way to do all these things, and perhaps without having to buy so many expensive softwares to do so few functions.

I may have said a lot of things you find unhelpful, but I do know some things about Autocad dwgs, and I am trying to do something similar, so perhaps I can help. For me what is difficult is not knowing much about Civil 3d, but I hope to learn more in the next month.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

AdrienneMiller — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 18:50:01 GMT

just for the heck of it, i just tried loading a cad dwg into arcmap, you might be happy to know i had the same result you did...i dont see anything....and i know there are things in the drawing, alot of things.

There are no objects in the tables ArcMap made for annotation, points, polylines, polygons, multipatch.

at least you know it's not just you. 🙂

sorry i dont have more time to mess with this perplexity right now, i also don't have any Autocad to use where i am right now.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

JimStrowbridge — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 16:16:56 GMT

I had same problem, it turns out that the some Autocad files can contain an internal coordinate system definition. If you create a .prj file (projection file of your current ArcGIS dataset) I just copied one from an existing shape file, renamed it to match the acad file name, apparently this over rules the internal Acad projection. It worked for me, I instinctly tried purging and saving it as older Acad format with no success....

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

AdrienneMiller — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 22:13:06 GMT

that's interesting jstrow, i haven't had a chance to try your routine. Since i have gone the route of exporting shapefiles or sdf files from Autocad Map instead of trying to read dwg files in ArcGIS, i probably won't try it soon either (just too busy with every other basic challenge i have on my plate...it never seems to end).

Something (possibly related) I have noticed in ArcGIS 10.1 is that I have to redefine projection info, ie, the Autocad Map (or Civil 3d) projection info is interpreted by ArcGIS as a "custom" projection (though I am using a standard state plane projection in both softwares and I believe all the parameters are equal), and I have to redefine features to have projection definition designed by/in ARCGIS.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

ThomasTorres1 — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 20:50:50 GMT

Hafa Adai Chris,

Not sure if you have fix yet but u might want to check if any of your layers within cad drawing are locked. We use Carlson survey
with intellcad. I have no problems bring .dwg files on the fly into arcmap. I also convert cad to shape within Carlson at times prior
to importing.

Tom

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

deleted-user-W5j4Qw2paV6O — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 19:45:53 GMT

Having the CAD file saved to a 2010 AutoCAD format worked fine, came right in to ArcGIS. Does anyone know if there is a patch for this? This is the first time in many years that I haven't been able to bring a dwg into ArcGIS as is. My AutoCAD-using coworkers tell me 2012 and 2014 CAD is problematic. I'm still trying to determine it its a CAD problem or an ArcGIS problem.
Thoughts?
Thanks
Tracy

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

JacobMaggard — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 11:47:42 GMT

just for the heck of it, i just tried loading a cad dwg into arcmap, you might be happy to know i had the same result you did...i dont see anything....and i know there are things in the drawing, alot of things.

There are no objects in the tables ArcMap made for annotation, points, polylines, polygons, multipatch.

at least you know it's not just you. 🙂

sorry i dont have more time to mess with this perplexity right now, i also don't have any Autocad to use where i am right now.

You might look into whether or not you have R/W perms at the location of the .DWG.

I just did the same thing:

Added .DWG to 10.1 on a shared workstation that we log into with a shared task account. Nada.

Then, added the same .DWG to 10.0 on my laptop and it worked.

Led me here.

Realized the difference between the two scenarios above is that the task acct does not have R/W (and ArcMap cannot write a lock file).

My acct does have R/W perms for that folder and the CAD shows up fine.

HTH,
Jake

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

AncaMIHAILESCU — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 10:51:52 GMT

Hi,

It is possible that your CAD drawing ( DWG format) have a coordinate system that is different from the web map where you want to insert it, in ArcMap.

You can check this with: Define Projection (data management) and run this tool.

All you have to do is to correlate this 2 coordinate system and then to zoom to the new layer.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

DanielAvila — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 14:01:17 GMT

I got the same problem and I cannot solved the way you exposed.

The better way is turning dwg to shp using a different software, by example GlobbalMapper.

Try it

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

AdrianWelsh — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 14:12:25 GMT

Since this thread is four years old, I wonder if Chris Slinko‌ has found a solution to this problem. I would almost think newer versions of ArcMap would have a help in resolving the issue.

https://community.esri.com/groups/cadgis-data-integration?sr=search&searchId=a41a81c4-d669-419d-8127-a2e3ca19be84&searchIndex=0‌

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

KeithAddison1 — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:51:51 GMT

I had the same problem with a 2018 format dwg, saving the dwg down to 2010 format fixed it.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

MelissaDrake — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 19:31:40 GMT

Thomas,

How do you convert .dwg in Carlson to ArcGIS? Every time I try and even though I select all the features I want it shows that I didn't select any features when the Export Carlson Entites to SHP file box comes up.

Re: Import DWG CAD drawing to ArcGIS

ThomasTorres1 — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 03:31:36 GMT

?Hi, Melissa,

I bring the .dwg file into ArcMap and export it to a .shp file. Still having issues using Carlson to convert to shp.

Thomas