About Published Data Types

You can publish the following data types from a drawing to MapGuide.

• Graphic data: All graphic objects can be exported to MapGuide in an SDF (Spatial Data File) file.

  Areas and spaces are converted to polygons in the appropriate SDF files. All other graphic objects are converted to polylines.

• Property set data: Property set data attached to an exported object is exported to a Microsoft Access Database consisting of a series of tables representing the individual property sets. Each object record within a table is assigned a unique object key matching the corresponding object key in the SDF file in order to associate the record in the database with the appropriate SDF geometry.
• Blocks and MVBlocks: Blocks and MVBlocks are exported as SDF files and point databases. Since the blocks and MVBlocks are exported in SDF format as well, the point databases provide an option for users to use symbols rather than the SDF geometry to represent Blocks and MVBlocks in MapGuide. There is a point geometry SDF format, but since AutoCAD Architecture 2022 toolset does not work with geospatial coordinate systems, a table in an external database presents a better data source for point-related data.

  The Publish To MapGuide command does not create bitmap files (BMP) or Windows Metafiles (WMF) representing the geometry of blocks or MVBlocks. If you want to generate WMFs, you need to use either the AutoCAD®WmfOut command or the MapGuide SDF Loader.

  The SDF Loader is a utility used to create Spatial Data Files (SDF) and their accompanying Spatial Index Files (SIF) from a variety of GIS data formats.

  You can download the SDF Loader utility from http://www.autodesk.com.

• External references: objects and property set data from external references are exported as if they actually resided in the host drawing.
  Note: The external reference name prefix of the layer name is removed when exporting data to MapGuide. This means that objects of the same type that are on the same layer in separate externally referenced files are placed in the same SDF files.