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, Extended Entity Data (EED)
  • 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 in Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD?

You can Import spatial Features as AutoCAD Objects in Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD using the contextual menu (mouse right-click) on any table or spatial file in the "Data sources" area of the "SPM" panel. That 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.

File:ContextualMenusACAD2.png

While running the "Import" wizard, you must select the appropriate Import parameters:

File:WizImportACAD.png

• Points and Centroids options. Here you will 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 is not any point or centroid to draw
  • Import as AutoCAD Points
  • Import as Blocks. This item will be disabled if there is not any Block definition in the drawing
    • Select a Block definition
    • Block options. Here you will 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 is not any Attribute in the Block definition and there is not any numeric Field in the data source
• Lines and Borders options. Here you will 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 is not any line or border to draw
  • Import as AutoCAD Polylines, Polylines 2D or Polylines 3D
  • Insert Nodes (of Polylines) as AutoCAD Points
• Polygons options. Here you will define the options for polygonal type Features. This area will be disabled if the application "knows" there is not any polygon 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 will 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 Associative
• AutoCAD Properties
  • Destination Layer name. You will select an existing Layer in the drawing or you will write the name to create a new Layer
  • 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 the value is null for any Object, this Object will be draw 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 Features data as Objects Extended Entity Data (EED). If you choose this option, when you select Objects in the drawing, you will see the Objects EEDs in the "Properties" area of the "SPM" panel

How can I define a Transformation of coordinates in Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD?

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 must 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" the CRS of the source 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

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