Preparing Document Feature Layers for Contractors
What you need:
- Autodesk® (AutoCAD®, Civil 3D® or Map 3D®)
- ArcGIS for AutoCAD
User story:
Within your organization, someone must perform a QC (quality control) check on CAD submissions from contractors to ensure compatibility with CAD/GIS standards requirements.
Contractors can use ArcGIS for AutoCAD to edit (add, update) entities in AutoCAD® (or Civil 3D®, Map 3D®) to specific layers containing blocks and attributes. Prepared input to existing GIS layers or feature classes can then be synchronized to ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise and even used in ArcGIS Pro.
This editing of GIS from within CAD eliminates the need for working with formats such as shapefiles. as the drawing file contains and organizes the CAD entities into GIS ready layers (tables) with specific attribute values and blocks as needed.
Preparing the drawing:
The key in preparing CAD drawings for contractors is to use Document Feature Layers from within ArcGIS for AutoCAD.
One approach is to manually create these types of layers from CAD by specifying the geometry, building up the schema and linking the two together. For example, for drawings already containing blocks, see this workflow that uses Block to Feature Layer.
Alternatively, consider the approach discussed below, where the GIS team creates and shares GIS-ready layers for use by contractors working in CAD. This alternative approach involves Web Feature Layers, which are Hosted Feature Layers and or Feature Services from ArcGIS Online and or ArcGIS Enterprise.
These feature layers are published from ArcGIS Pro and can contain Domains and even Subtypes.
Once the web feature layers are published, the CAD team in your organization carries out the following steps:
- Add web feature layer(s) to the CAD drawing by using the Add Data UI from the ArcGIS for AutoCAD ribbon.
- For each web feature layer of interest right-click the layer to open the context menu.
- Select Extract.
Each extracted web feature layer now resides under the document feature layers section of the Esri Contents pane for ArcGIS for AutoCAD.
These layers contain the specific geometry, attribute fields, domains, as well as any subtypes. The CAD drawing is also set to a specific Coordinate System, which if not already assigned, was automatically set when the first web feature layer was added.
Now what?
CAD files configured in this way adhere to your organization’s CAD standards, but also uphold the linkage between CAD geometry and associated GIS attributes. Supply this drawing file to your contractors for work on the specific project.
The contractors perform their normal CAD work, operating on the layers configured in the supplied drawing file. Once complete, contractors submit the drawing to your organization in the usual way.
NOTE: Contractors will need to install ArcGIS for AutoCAD. Otherwise, the document feature layers and their rich GIS content will not be visible. |
Back at the office:
For drawing files populated and submitted by the contractor, a member of the CAD team can perform QC, with the desired level of emphasis on checks to both geometry and attributes. Additionally, the GIS team can also participate in the QC process for submitted drawings using ArcGIS Pro without having to build up the associated schema to the geometry post-submission. This is because the document feature layers are recognized as Feature Classes within ArcGIS Pro.
Once QC is complete, the attributed geometry is published to ArcGIS Online and or ArcGIS Enterprise.
Learn more:
Many patterns like the one described above are available right now for CAD and GIS team collaborations. Check out these resources to learn more.