Better options for handling CAD data

[KeithAddison1]

Right now if you add CAD data to Pro it defaults to making a separate layer for each layer in CAD.  If the source CAD has a great many layers, as they often do, this results in a giant pile of layer clutter that can be time consuming to remove.  Also a problem because the more layers present the slower the entire program goes.  It'd be great if there were some options to better control how CAD data is added so that endless piles of layer clutter can be minimized.  A great one would be to NOT make a layer from every CAD layer and just group them by object type.  Another pain is how Pro makes a GIS layer structure for object types that don't actually exist in the source CAD.  Similar slow down and tedious removal processes apply here as well.

[MichaelDavidsonPM]

Hi @KeithAddison1,

For the upcoming release of ArcGIS Pro 3.2, the way that the read-only feature layers from CAD are created and organized has been updated so that the number of layers is reduced and performance is improved. As additional detail: 

By default, the CAD entities in the CAD file are organized by geometric type into feature classes. These default feature classes include Point, Polyline, Polygon, Annotation, and Multipatch. Note that Annotation is new here as well. 

For instances where you would want to organize the CAD layers in the same manner as prior to the updated approach, we have also added the following as part of the upcoming release of ArcGIS Pro 3.2:

On the CAD data ribbon of ArcGIS Pro when you have a layer highlighted within the TOC you can switch the organization of the highlighted layer or layers from the legacy group of grouped layers or the default method of organizing the feature layers by their CAD properties.

[MichaelDavidsonPM]

As a continuation of my post from 10-26-2023, with the release of ArcGIS Pro 3.2, we have enhanced the compactness, variety, and performance of layers created upon read-in of CAD files. Thank you for posting this idea.