Rookie woes - can't seem to export elevation text

Anonymous User · ‎02-17-2013

Original User: offwhite

rookie guy again -

I am almost all of the way to my end goal but not quite. I have managed to generate contour lines at intervals I want from LiDAR raster, adjust the appearance to a satisfactory level, and export to CAD my contour lines.......and even kind of proud of myself for getting this far. It has felt challenging.....

I cannot however seem to figure out, or grasp the proper settings or sequence to get the elevation text to export as well. I have read and reread the help but something is not getting through my thick skull. I have also tried multiple settings adjustments mucking about, [hey I might have gotten lucky], and no luck that route either.

I have attached screen shots of my open program and hopefully this will assist with seeing how I am operating, or trying. I would certainly appreciate any help in easy reader from that anyone can offer up to help me out here. A link to an instructive video or screen shots, or, or..........?

Anonymous User · ‎02-18-2013

Original User: khodge

Export to CAD will export geodatabases annotation feature classes as text in your DWG. If your map text is labels, convert to annotation first.

Hope this helps!

Karen

jeffwhite1 · ‎02-19-2013

Thanks for the reply Karen, really appreciate it.

OK, sorry to seem so obtuse but pilot error or lack of clarity about how to drive, rules of the road, or ability to read the map, you name it I'm doing something W R O N G ! ......

I right clicked on the origin file, got to drop down menu to change text to annotation, [there are some options here which I'm not sure I completed correctly], then selected and saved. A box comes up annotation overflow. Then ran through the export to CAD sequence, which completes with green check mark, [ArcMAp is happy], the new layer set shows up in the layer box. When I turn off the parent layer the text sin't there........still. I am clueless how to correct this. I am sensing I just haven't told ArcMAp what to do correctly and feel SO close but SO far. Do I need to be setting an attribute differently ahead of, post exporting to CAD? [I've been hunting for something like that but can't find it......? Not to imply that I would understand how to correctly make that adjustment either.]

If you could give me a few step by steps that would be SO great! I realize you've got other fish to fry and definitely value your taking time to help someone who must seem so out to lunch. I swear I'm trying...

Also noticing a rather large increase in file size every time I revisit and work with the file, [sometimes up to 25%], editing, attempting to export to CAD, removing and or replacing files. Is this normal and is there a way to "trim" the size? Is there some sort of memory file associated with the parent .mxd file that can be "cleared" or the equivalent?

Anonymous User · ‎02-19-2013

Original User: khodge

Pardon the silly question, but when you run the Export to CAD tool, are you including both the layers: the geometry and the annotation? You must include both.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you'll want to store the resultant features in a database, not in the map.

Does that clarify anything for you?

--Karen

Thanks for the reply Karen, really appreciate it.

OK, sorry to seem so obtuse but pilot error or lack of clarity about how to drive, rules of the road, or ability to read the map, you name it I'm doing something W R O N G ! ......

I right clicked on the origin file, got to drop down menu to change text to annotation, [there are some options here which I'm not sure I completed correctly], then selected and saved. A box comes up annotation overflow. Then ran through the export to CAD sequence, which completes with green check mark, [ArcMAp is happy], the new layer set shows up in the layer box. When I turn off the parent layer the text sin't there........still. I am clueless how to correct this. I am sensing I just haven't told ArcMAp what to do correctly and feel SO close but SO far. Do I need to be setting an attribute differently ahead of, post exporting to CAD? [I've been hunting for something like that but can't find it......? Not to imply that I would understand how to correctly make that adjustment either.]

If you could give me a few step by steps that would be SO great! I realize you've got other fish to fry and definitely value your taking time to help someone who must seem so out to lunch. I swear I'm trying...

Also noticing a rather large increase in file size every time I revisit and work with the file, [sometimes up to 25%], editing, attempting to export to CAD, removing and or replacing files. Is this normal and is there a way to "trim" the size? Is there some sort of memory file associated with the parent .mxd file that can be "cleared" or the equivalent?

jeffwhite1 · ‎02-20-2013

Hi Karen -

I wouldn't consider your questions silly. I'm afraid that's my territory and my rookie status is really showing here.....I do not see, [or understand how to amend, split out or find the source annotation file], to include a separate annotation layer. I only see the single source layer file available in the export dialog. Can you advise me there?

When looking into the properties of the annotation file created in the new export to CAD layers it is associated with the correct database, has Z values but nothing is displayed. I cannot find a way, [or don't know how], to make the annotation visible, or amend it either......only adding to my confusion.

Also you'll see when attempting to store the database other than in the map I don't seem to understand how to do that as well. The dialog boxes either won't allow me to navigate to to a specific location and/or I am not pointing in the correct direction/directory.

And still the .mxd files are growing in size anytime I save one after editing........any thoughts about that?

Anonymous User · ‎02-26-2013

Original User: khodge

1. Create a geodatabase to store your output annotation feature class.
2. Run the Convert to Annotation, but this time, store the annotation in your newly created geodatabase.
3. This will probably automatically add the annotation layer to your map, but if it doesn't, you can manually add it to see what the output looks like.
4. Finally, run the export to CAD tool on your chosen layer. You'll see that the tool accepts multiple feature classes/layers as input. In addition to your line feature layer, add the annotation layer to the inputs.

That should do you.

I'm guessing that the additional size is simply due to the fact that you are storing the anno in the map.

Hope that helps!

--Karen

Hi Karen -

I wouldn't consider your questions silly. I'm afraid that's my territory and my rookie status is really showing here.....I do not see, [or understand how to amend, split out or find the source annotation file], to include a separate annotation layer. I only see the single source layer file available in the export dialog. Can you advise me there?

When looking into the properties of the annotation file created in the new export to CAD layers it is associated with the correct database, has Z values but nothing is displayed. I cannot find a way, [or don't know how], to make the annotation visible, or amend it either......only adding to my confusion.

Also you'll see when attempting to store the database other than in the map I don't seem to understand how to do that as well. The dialog boxes either won't allow me to navigate to to a specific location and/or I am not pointing in the correct direction/directory.

And still the .mxd files are growing in size anytime I save one after editing........any thoughts about that?

dougscrivener · ‎03-12-2013

I am converting geodata annotation to cad. What causes the resulting cad annotation to explode in size?
If I add cad fields to the geo data anno, do I add a cad value to one of the cad fields to l,ock in a font size?