Save Current Map to AutoCAD wizard

Use this wizard to save the currently displayed map as a plain AutoCAD drawing. Everything in the current display map (geospatial features and drawing objects) will appear in the target DWG file as AutoCAD entities.

Choose A Method

Editable

Select this method to create an AutoCAD drawing that contains (to the degree possible) a single styled entity for each entity in the original map. Geospatial features are converted to closed polylines, lines, and blocks. For example, a polygon with a complex fill becomes a single closed polyline boundary using the topmost border style and one or more associative hatches. Feature labels with a background become MText entities with associated hatch.

Some styling options cannot be represented in AutoCAD. For example, ghosted text becomes simple MText. Lines that use complex, enhanced, or composite styles become multiple polylines. Points that use complex styles become multiple blocks.

The names of the feature classes, symbols, and line styles in the current map (and the existence of same-named AutoCAD layers, blocks, and linetypes) determine how the converted features appear in the target drawing.

If your map contains feature classes whose names match AutoCAD layers in the map, the conversion process creates a layer with that name in the target drawing and places the features for that class as entities on that layer.

If you styled a point feature using a symbol, and your drawing contains a block with the same name, the conversion process will create a block reference to that block to represent the points in the target drawing.

Linear features that use a line style with the same name as an AutoCAD linetype in your map will use that AutoCAD linetype in the target drawing.

To create a target drawing in which feature classes are mapped to different layers, linetypes, or block references than the ones in the current map, create an AutoCAD (.DWT) template. Same-named items in the template will determine the appearance of their counterparts in the current map. For example, if the current map contains points that use a symbol called A, and the map contains a block called A, you can include a different block in your template that is also called A, and the conversion process will use the one in the template rather than the one in the drawing. See To Set Up a Conversion Template.

AutoCAD has two methods for determining line width: Lineweight and PolylineWidth. By default, the Editable conversion method uses Lineweight. To use PolylineWidth instead, use a command-line option. See MAPTOACADUSELINEWEIGHT (Use Lineweight command).

Visual
Choose this method to maintain visual fidelity to the greatest extent possible. Individual features are, for the most part, ignored. The display map is reconstructed in AutoCAD using as many entities as needed. The resulting map may be difficult to edit. For example, ghosted text will become multiple text entities overlaid on one another to imitate ghosting; a complex hatch pattern may become many short lines or points.

Specify Location

File Name
Enter or browse to the location for the target AutoCAD drawing and specify its filename.

Set Conversion Options

This screen of the wizard appears only if you chose Editable as the Conversion Method.

Conversion Template

Optionally, select a template to use in the conversion process. Same-named layers, line styles, and blocks in the template will determine the appearance of their corresponding features in the current drawing. See To Set Up a Conversion Template.

If you leave this field blank, no template is used during conversion. In that case, same-named layers, blocks and linetypes in the current map are used (as described above). If no same-named items are found in either location, features are converted using default settings in AutoCAD. For example, features with no equivalent AutoCAD layer name will appear on layer 0.

Include XData
Select this option to save attribute data as XData in AutoCAD. For drawing objects, the object data table name is appended to the XData entries. For geospatial features, the feature class and schema names from the original feature are appended.