October 18, 2016

ArcGIS for AutoCAD 355 Now Available

A welcome interruption to the current blog series on the five uses of ArcGIS for AutoCAD, is this reminder that the new shiny version ArcGIS for AutoCAD 355 is now available for download on Esri.com.

Esri is increasing the pace of releases of ArcGIS for AutoCAD. This is one of those incremental releases. Be sure to download the newest version of ArcGIS for AutoCAD 355 now, which is available here.

This new release includes updated support for AutoCAD versions 2013-2017 in nine different languages. New in this release is a command to generate local feature classes from all the populated layers in your drawing. This new command is good for creating new local feature classes from well-structured drawings that you intend to share with ArcGIS desktop users, or that you want to add tabular attributes to within AutoCAD.

This important release fixes a bug when connecting to secure services on ArcGIS 10.3.x and higher servers. This release will also warn you when you connect to feature services on 10.3.1 servers containing unsupported date fields. (This issue with feature service date fields in ArcGIS Server was fixed in ArcGIS Server 10.4), but in case you are using 10.3.1 servers with ArcGIS for AutoCAD you will be warned that you cannot synchronize services when a date field is present in feature services on those servers. Check out this brief video for an overview of what’s new in ArcGIS for AutoCAD 355.

18 Comments:

Blogger Robert A. Stokes (Dad) said...

Hey Don. As before, netload continues to be an annoying "problem". I have used a script file as you described years ago, but is there a better solution to force AutoCAD (with Carlson) to load ArcGIS for AutoCAD?

9:52 AM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

The script file is one way. Any AutoLISP that gets called like ACAD.lsp or ACADDOC.lsp could also include the netload command. ie: (command "NETLOAD" "/ArcGISforAutoCAD.dll")
If you use Esri's desktop launcher you'll get ArcGIS for AutoCAD to load with the last AutoCAD that was used on that machine... I am not really sure about how AutoCAD with Carlson is invoked it may mean adding the NETLOAD action to their loading mechanism to get them both running "automatically".

12:42 PM  
Anonymous Luke said...

Hello Don. There are a couple of things I have been unable to do with the plugin ... are they possible?

1) Assign rotation (using an esri attribute) to a block in AutoCAD (like you can with the EXPORT TO CAD tool).

2) Adjust the locates tool's default zoom.

Thanks

7:54 AM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

Luke,
The simple block function does not support rotation like EXPORT TO CAD. However I did write some sample AutoLISP bonus tools to work with blocks in ArcGIS for AutoCAD that works with both Tag and Fields and attributes. I blogged about those here: http://giscadblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/arcgis-data-and-blocks-afablocktofc.html along with a video that outlines the use of these tools. The blog post talks mostly about conversion, but the other included tools work with maintaining ArcGIS field values as block attributes that includes the ability to define a ROTATION or ANGLE field that will spin the block when updated. The locate tool uses the AutoCAD zoom to entity. Controlling the extent of that zoom for points is based on a combination of AutoCAD parameters PDMODE/PDSIZE. Setting these can help control the size of the zoom for point features.

9:48 AM  
Anonymous Luke said...

Thanks Don! As usual, your advise is spot on.

I downloaded the bonus tools and afa_block_properties is doing exactly what I asked, and I saw it work flawlessly for you in your video via the afa_fieldtoblock command. When I run it, it replaces the first block it finds and returns the error "error: bad argument type: lentityp nil". The first point is duplicated (the AutoCAD point and the block are both there, but the new block isn't rotated) and none of the other points are replaced. Just curious if you have seen this error before or if you have any suggestions?

Thanks

12:04 PM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

Luke,
Yes there is a bug. It is mishandling blocks that don't have attributes. I will post a fix soon.

12:10 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Don,

I'd like to ask few questions:
1. Understand that the subtype is only working with feature service, any idea if this functionality will be released for feature class export to CAD with subtype?
2. On the previous version of ArcGIS for AutoCAD there was this functionality that can populate multiple fields at once with the use of value box -- is this already gone? or is there a work around to populate multiple fields?
3. From feature class - If the data type of the field is set as date the column will disappear once exported as CAD data. (Is the DATE type not supported yet?)
4. Is there any plan on adding openstreet basemap?

Hoping for your advice.

-Kat

1:54 AM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

1. You can EXTRACT a feature service layer within ArcGIS for AutoCAD to get local feature classes with subtypes. ArcGIS desktop does not yet support the creation of subtypes with the EXPORT TO CAD geoprocessing tool. This is something we hope to include in a future release of ArcGIS desktop. This is something we definitely intend to do.

2. The ATTRIBUTE editing dialog will allow you to populate the field of multiple records (all the features that are selected.

3. The desktop EXPORT TO CAD geoprocessing tool does not yet support date fields. Something we also want to include in a future release. (Creating as TEXT would be a work around before exporting...)

4. Map Services that are provided in the Esri Maps gallery are just a subset of ArcGIS Map Services curated by Esri. I do not believe there is a Esri Web Map Service version of Open Street map? If you find one you should be able to add it if you know the URL.

9:22 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Don,

Is it possible to create definition queries on feature service layers while using ArcGIS for AutoCAD?

Thanks,
Josh

12:13 PM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

You cannot, for example, limit the feature service to only certain field values that exist in that feature service layer to filter out the content of what is being served from that feature service layer. What you can do is when publishing the feature service in ArcGIS desktop you can limit the content with a definition query on the layer before you publish it.

4:42 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Don,

Thank you very much for your response.

For the attribute editing, I wanted to check with you if the "value box" is still available. (For populating several fields at once). I just actually saw a tutorial from youtube "How to use ArcGIS for AutoCAD: Editing in the ArcGIS System" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTOjmGO6Hoo) , the "Value box" appeared in 3:11

Is it still available or is there any workaround on this function?

Looking forward to your advice.

Thank you.

12:05 AM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

In previous versions there was an option like you point out to use the [F2] key to make multiple inplace edits in the table viewer. To accomplish that task now you would select the features you want to change and then use the ATTRIBUTE dialog box to make the changes instead. The ATTRIBUTE dialog accessible on the ribbon has a multi-select capability and will allow you to make changes to a field of all the selected features at once.

12:42 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Don,

I believe that a definition query option may be something to consider in a future release. The ability to write queries within ArcGIS for AutoCAD would eliminate the need to either a). disconnect from live services and delete the data from the copy that you don't want included, or b). continuously republish services in ArcMap in order to force the exact data that you need into your AutoCAD projects.

Thanks again,
Josh

1:30 PM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

Your comments are valid and duly noted. What is a typical query definition you would want to employ? How should it work if you could have it any way? What if you created something outside the membership requirements of the query? What should happen upon synchronize?

3:23 PM  
Anonymous Luke said...

Hello Don -

I have noticed when synchronizing edits back to our GIS that if an arc is modified I receive the following error ... ": Errors encountered in updating features.: Error processing server request."

ArcGIS for AutoCAD doesn't seem to have issues displaying the arcs ... I only run into trouble when attempting to update (geometry or attribute). If I convert any existing arcs to lines updates will go through no problem.

Is this a known issue? Is there a work-around that doesn't require the removal of arcs?

thanks!

9:15 AM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

There was an issue in older versions of ArcGIS Server with short flat arc segments and feature services. This issue was resolved in ArcGIS Server 10.4. If this does not sound like your issue be sure to follow up with technical support.

3:35 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Don,

When extracting the feature class from service I was able to get the correct schema/field arrangement correctly however after saving and reopening the file again the schema was re-arranged alphabetically. Is there a way I can preserved the schema arrangement?

Looking forward to your advice.

Thank you.

7:15 PM  
Blogger Don Kuehne said...

I don't know of a way to do that right now. This is a great suggestion for a future release.

11:34 AM  

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