To Convert Multiple Drawings to a New Format or to Change Units

Note: The Export Civil 3D Drawing command, introduced in the Autodesk® AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2014 Productivity Pack 1, can be used to export multiple drawings to either AutoCAD® DWG or MicroStation® DGN format.

If you have multiple drawings that you need to save to a previous drawing format, you can use the CivilBatchConverter command to do a batch conversion of multiple drawing files and save them to AutoCAD drawing formats. You can also use this utility to explode Autodesk Civil 3D objects to basic AutoCAD objects and to convert drawing units to a supported unit type.

When converting Autodesk Civil 3D drawings to legacy AutoCAD drawing formats, the application does not convert Autodesk Civil 3D objects to the previous version.

1. Enter CivilBatchConverter at the command line.
2. In the Civil Batch Converter dialog box, under Conversion Options in the General section, specify the following:
   • Units: in the Value column, click the cell and select the units to be used in the drawings you convert. To maintain the current units, select Current.
     Note: To change only the drawing Units in multiple files, specify the new Units Value and set the Drawing Save Format to Current. Civil objects are not exploded if you only change the Units Value.
   • Filename Prefix: in the Value column, click the cell and enter a prefix to be added to the files you convert.
     Tip: Adding a filename prefix is helpful to easily identify the newly converted files, for example you could use ACAD-.
   • Filename Suffix: in the Value column, click the cell and enter a suffix to be added to the files you convert.
3. Under the Format section, specify the following:
   • Drawing Save Format: in the Value column, click the cell and from the list select the drawing format for the converted drawings.
   • Explode Objects: in the Value column, click the cell and select Yes to explode Civil Objects to AutoCAD primitives. Select No to convert drawings in the current format.
     Note: If you select Yes and explode objects in a Autodesk Civil 3D drawing, the primitive objects are not restored to Autodesk Civil 3D objects when you re-open the drawing in Autodesk Civil 3D.
   • Bind Xrefs: in the Value column, click the cell and select Yes or No.
   • Use Insert Method When Binding Xrefs: in the Value column click the cell and select Yes or No.
4. In the File Selection section, do the following:
   • Under Source Folder, browse to the location of the source files that you want to convert. To include files in subfolders, select the Look in Subfolders check box. The filenames display in the Selected Files section.
   • Under Search For Files Named, select a file type from the list, or enter a file type or file name in the box. To search for multiple file types you can enter a comma delimited list. You can also use an asterisk as a wildcard, for example auto*.dwg.
   • Under Destination Folder, browse to the location where you want to save the converted files.
   Note: By default, all drawing files are selected. To select files individually, click the Clear All button to clear all check boxes and then select the check boxes for the drawing files you want to convert.
5. Do one of the following:
   • Click Apply to convert the selected files. The dialog box remains open.
   • Click OK to convert the selected files and close the dialog box.

     A message box displays when the conversion is complete.

   Note: If the program encounters an error during the conversion process, a list of the files that did not convert and the file location will be displayed when the conversion is complete.