Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD - FAQs: Import

Introduction

Objective of this section
- To learn how to define import processes and their parameters and manage coordinate transformations

Topics in this section
- Sources: data sources
- Import parameters: AutoCAD objects parameters, hatches, AutoCAD properties, XDATA / Extended Entity Data (EED) ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)
- Transforming the coordinates: source and target, favorite coordinate systems, searching in the coordinate systems table and transformation parameters

How can I Import spatial Features as AutoCAD Objects?

You can Import spatial Features as AutoCAD Objects into Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD by using the contextual menu (mouse right-click) on any table or spatial file in the "Data sources" area of the "SpatialManager" palette. This will launch the "Import" wizard of the application. As you will see, you can import the table or the file in the current or a new drawing (see also "How to import directly into the current drawing?" below).

While running the "Import" wizard, you can select the Import parameters that match your needs:

File:WizImportACAD2.png

Points and Centroids options. Here you can define the options for point type Features and for centroids of Polygons (if you choose any option to draw centroids in the Polygons options). This area will be disabled if the application "knows" there are no points or centroids to draw
- Import as AutoCAD Points
- Import as Blocks. This item will be disabled if there are no Block definitions in the drawing
  - Select a Block definition
  - Block options. Here you can choose the correspondence between Fields (if any in the data source) and Block Attributes (if any in the Block definition), and the Block Insertion parameters, such as the Rotation and the Scales, from values of Fields in the data source. This item will be disabled if there are no Attributes in the Block definition and there are no numeric Fields in the data source
Lines and Borders options. Here you can define the options for lineal type Features and for borders of Polygons (if you choose any option to draw borders in the Polygons options). This area will be disabled if the application "knows" there are no lines or borders to draw
- Import as AutoCAD Polylines, Polylines 2D or Polylines 3D
- Insert Nodes (of Polylines) as AutoCAD Points
Polygons options. Here you can define the options for polygonal type Features. This area will be disabled if the application "knows" there are no polygons to draw
- Import Borders, Borders and Centroids or Centroids only
  - You can find here an interesting option which allows you to select "Polygons" (MPolygons) as the type of object to use. This option is available on all compatible Autodesk products (even basic AutoCAD) except on any v.2010 product. The MPolygons can be defined by multiple rings, even including holes, as a single AutoCAD object
- Fill areas using Hatches. This item will be disabled if you have chosen the option to import as "Only Centroids"
  - Hatch options. Here you can define the options for the Hatches such as Pattern, Angle and Scale (except for "Solid" pattern), Apply Transparency to the Hatch (only for "Solid" pattern and whenever AutoCAD supports the Transparency property) and if the Hatch is Associative or not
AutoCAD Properties
- Destination Layer name. You can select an existing Layer in the drawing or you can write the name to create a new Layer (the application will propose a suitable name for the incoming table)
- Use Field values for destination Layer. Here you can select any Field to define its value as the name of the Layer for the imported Objects. If this value is null for any Object, the Object will be drawn in the Layer selected as "Destination Layer" in the previous item
- Apply random colors to new Layers
- Use Field values for Object Elevation and/or Thickness
- Import as 2D Objects (Z coordinate will be ignored). This option lets you "flatten" all the imported objects on the XY plane
- Import Features data as Objects Extended Entity Data (EED) ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only). If you choose this option, when you select Objects in the drawing, you will see the Objects EEDs (or XDATA) in the "Properties" area of the "SpatialManager" palette
  - Note: the fields whose value starts with "http" are automatically converted into active links

How can I define a Transformation of coordinates?

When you are Importing Features as AutoCAD Objects using Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD, you will see that you can choose a Transformation of coordinates from the source Features to the objects in the drawing, in the "Import" wizard. That means that the application will calculate a geometric transformation between the source and the target data, which will depend on the chosen CRS for the source (incoming Features) and for the target (imported AutoCAD objects) data. You can choose the appropriate CRSs by clicking on "CRS catalog...", in the CRS dropdown list for the source or for the target data. In the CRS table you can:

Filter the CRSs by type (Geocentric, Projected, etc.)
Choose a CRS by clicking on its row in the table
Search CRSs by typing the search criteria in the "Search" box. You can type here as many words as you like separated by blanks. The application will find all the rows including all these words in a column of the table

After choosing a pair of valid CRS for a Transformation, you can choose the geographic Area to apply it to (the application will choose by default the most common Area for this Transformation)

If the application "knows", "guess" or "can assume" the CRS of the source and/or the target (drawing) data, it will be chosen by default. You will be able to modify this choice except in cases where only one CRS is valid; for example, for a KML or a KMZ file the only valid choice is the CRS "WGS84 (SRID 4326)", because these types of file are always defined using this CRS

You can assign a CRS to the drawing, or modify it, using the command 'SPMSETCRS'. By executing this command you will access to the CRS catalog of the application, described in the previous lines

When importing a table defined using a known CRS into a drawing without an assigned CRS, the CRS of the table is automatically assigned to the drawing
If you change the target CRS by choosing any CRS other than the drawing CRS, you will get a warning from the application but you can continue and perform the Transformation of coordinates if you want to do it

Notes:

- As you will see, the CRS dropdown lists will include more and more CRSs as they have been previously chosen in other Transformation operations, so that you can choose your "favorite" CRSs directly from the dropdown list without having to access the CRS Table all the time

- If the incoming data is defined using the CRS "WGS84 (SRID 4326)" and the drawing has not assigned any CRS, the transformation to the CRS "WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator (SRID 3857)" is selected by default to get a projected map instead of a flat representation of geodesic coordinates

File:TC-2.png

Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD SETSPMCRS command

How can I speed up the starting Import process?

Sometimes, depending on the characteristics of the source, the initial reading of the data Fields may take a long time or even block the Importing process. Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD performs this startup reading to allow you to choose certain options relating to this data on the next wizard window, such as the use of the field values to define the target Layers for the imported Objects. However you have a button available to "Skip" this step, which does not affect the imported Objects themselves but only certain options that may not be available in the Importing process

How can I speed up the Import wizard steps?

To speed up the process when you are importing, all the "Import" wizard windows in Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD include the "Finish" button. By pressing this button, you will directly run the Import process. The wizard will assume the default values in each step to be omitted

Can I see the data of the imported Features? ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)

Yes, you can see the data of the imported Features in Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD, because this data is also imported as EED (Extended Entity Data or XDATA) attached to the resulting Objects in the drawing. To see it, select an imported Object in AutoCAD and its data will be shown in the group "Data" of the "Properties" area in the "SpatialManager" palette

In addition to the XDATA / EED, you will see some other Object data, such as its Layer or its Bounding box, in other groups, such as "General" or "Geometry"

When selecting multiple Objects, you will see their common data here. All the data which is not equal for the selection, will be shown as "Various"

How to import directly into the current drawing?

In addition to importing Features from the Palette, the SPMIMPORT command of Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD allows you to import the Features directly into the current drawing without having to open the application Palette. The displayed window is similar to the Data Sources section of the Palette and once the import source is selected, the "Import" wizard includes the same steps and parameters that have been detailed in the paragraphs above

File:SPMIMPORT ACAD3.png

Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD - FAQs: Import

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