Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD - FAQs: Import

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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: BricsCAD Entities parameters, hatches, BricsCAD properties, 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 BricsCAD Entities?

You can Import spatial Features as BricsCAD Entities into Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD by using the context 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).


Files-5AC.png


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


File:WizImportBCAD2.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 BricsCAD 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 BricsCAD Polylines, Polylines 2D or Polylines 3D
    • Insert Nodes (of Polylines) as BricsCAD 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 as Borders and/or Centroids
    • 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 BricsCAD supports the Transparency property) and if the Hatch is Associative or not
  • BricsCAD 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 Entities. If this value is null for any Entity, the Entity will be drawn in the Layer selected as "Destination Layer" in the previous item
    • Apply random colors to new Layers
    • Use Field values for Entity Elevation and/or Thickness
    • Import as 2D Entities (Z coordinate will be ignored). This option lets you "flatten" all the imported entities on the XY plane
    • Import Features data as Extended Entity Data (EED) ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only). If you choose this option, when you select Entities in the drawing, you will see the EEDs in the "Properties" area of the "SpatialManager" palette


PropEEDACAD.png


How can I define a Transformation of coordinates?

When you are Importing Features as BricsCAD Entities using Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD, you will see that you can choose a Transformation of coordinates from the source Features to the Entities 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 BricsCAD Entities) 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)

Note 1: as you will see, the CRS dropdown list 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

Note 2: 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

Note 3: 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 and not a flat representation of geodesic coordinates


TC-14.png


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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 BricsCAD 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 Entities. However you have a button available to "Skip" this step, which does not affect the imported Entities themselves but only certain options that may not be available in the Importing process


SkipFields.png


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 BricsCAD 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


Finish button.png


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 BricsCAD, because this data is also imported as EED (Extended Entity Data) attached to the resulting Entities in the drawing. To see it, select an imported Entity in BricsCAD and its data will be shown in the group "Data" of the "Properties" area in the "SpatialManager" palette

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


EED-1.png


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


EED-2.png


How to import directly into the current drawing?

In addition to importing Features from the Palette, the SPMIMPORT command of Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD 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 sourceis selected, the "Import" wizard includes the same steps and parameters that have been detailed in the paragraphs above


File:SPMIMPORT BCAD3.png


Related links


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