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What happened to grouping CAD layers in Pro?

1793
7
02-06-2018 03:50 PM
AdrianWelsh
MVP Honored Contributor

I keep expecting each new version of ArcGIS Pro to bring back how ArcMap used to group all of the Cad layers in one group (like annotation, point, line, polygon, and multipatch). 

Now Pro explodes the layers, but it does have nice grouping capabilities within each subset (like line, polygon, etc.). I liked having my stuff grouped because it made things easier. Is there a way to force this grouping to happen?

https://community.esri.com/groups/cadgis-data-integration?sr=search&searchId=164aef1b-4c08-4dd8-bc7c...

7 Replies
DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

from here... http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/help/data/cad/how-cad-data-is-organized.htm

Is this what you are referring to as being different?

CAD layers organize data similar to layers in ArcMap; however, they do not follow the GIS simple features model. CAD authors are free to mix geometry types and other data on a single layer. It is also possible to use line type and color to further classify the data. As a result, the data's context, along with textual information and a significant amount of human interpretation, can be required to identify geometry as a particular feature in ArcMap.
AdrianWelsh
MVP Honored Contributor

Yes? But... That doesn't make too much sense; to me at least.

I just want it to do exactly what it's doing but still group my CAD layers into one group based on the main CAD file. I mean, I can easily group all five layers back together after the CAD file loads, but oftentimes this is quite tedious because the layers get distributed in order of geometry within the TOC (annotations are first, followed by points, polylines, then polygons - and whatever the heck multipatch is).

Anyways, maybe it's more of a wishlist and potential future Ideas list than anything else.

DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Sounds like a change in any event or a gentle nudge to move files to a gdb and keep cad where cad works best

AdrianWelsh
MVP Honored Contributor

Yeah, true. I have seen that option to automatically add CAD files to gdb and have used it, but as most of us know, CAD comes with so much bloat that each file needs to be inspected/cleaned before blindly transferring it over:

When I load CAD into my map, I expect it to be somewhat temporary and I just want it organized a little stricter so that I can easily remove it instead of junking up my TOC.

I suppose it's just a preference thing.

by Anonymous User
Not applicable

I just started to use ArcGIS Pro (2.7). Yes, please! I agree 110% with your comments! Is there an ESRI person or an Ideas site for this?

Just want a group of the groups and not have to manually find them all and group them myself. dumb.

sbrof
by
Emerging Contributor

I think I am having this same issue. I don't want a separate "feature class" for every layer within CAD. I just want ALL the AutoCAD polygon geometry on 1 layer in ArcGIS Pro.

SteveIrving
Emerging Contributor

I agree.  Please stop trying to 'help' professional users who do not need or want all the bloaty automation.  At the very least options for this kind of behavior (auto symbolizing/loading) should be exposed to the user to decide/disable.

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