Autodesk AutoCAD DWG/DXF Writer Parameters

If selected, stores attributes as extended entity data. For more information on Extended Entity Data, see the Feature Representation section of the AutoCAD DWG/DXF chapter in the FME Readers and Writers manual. (From the Workbench Help menu, select FME Readers and Writers Reference.)

Specifies whether the writer should use the attribute definitions that are found within blocks when placing inserts. If not selected, then all the attributes on a feature that is passed to the writer are written as insert attributes. If selected, then only the attributes defined within the block being placed are stored as insert attributes.

Ignore most attribute information and output only the geometry.

Specify the AutoCAD release the output file will be compatible with.

A template file is an AutoCAD file that defines layers, line styles, blocks and shape definitions which are referenced during translation. This option allows you to define the template file by entering a template filename or browsing to a file location.

Note: Template files are also known as prototype files.

This parameter specifies the default manner in which attribute data will be stored. Use this parameter to store all attributes in a single manner.

• Limited (external_attributes) instructs the writer to not store any attribution in the AutoCAD file, with the exception of extended entity data list formatted attributes as created by the AutoCAD reader. This is the default value.
• Extended Entity Data (extended_entity_data) instructs the writer to store all attribution in extended entity data as the default
• Inserts (insert_attributes) instructs the writer to store all attribution using inserts.

The application name that is used when writing extended entity data.

When this parameter is set to Yes (default), only those attributes defined as part of the layer definition will be stored. See the DEF directive for more details.

If this parameter is set to No, most feature attributes (except those that start with autocad) are stored.

The names of blocks created by the writer during automatic block creation will use the value of this parameter as a prefix if specified. If not, specified, the syntax is <filename>_<writerkeyword>_FME_BLOCK_<blocknumber>.

This parameter is not supported by the RealDWG writer.

Use this parameter to turn on/off internal auditing before the final drawing file is written out.

By default it is set to Yes, so auditing will be performed and any errors found will be fixed. It is recommended that you leave the auditing set to Yes. If you set it to No, it is possible that the output file may not be as per the AutoCAD file specification.

How Auditing Fixes Errors: As an example, if there is a layer name with a space or any other invalid characters, then that layer name will be changed to something like $DDT_AUDIT_GENERATED_(3B). If auditing is turned off, then the layer name will not be changed and when it is audited in AutoCAD, it will return errors such as invalid layer names.

This parameter controls whether the writer will optionally store the coordinate system of its features. The coordinate system can be stored inside the output AutoCAD file as an Esri Well Known Text (in an ESRI_PRJ entry in an internal dictionary in the file), according to Esri specifications. It can also be stored externally in a companion Esri .prj file that shares the output AutoCAD file's base name, but has a .prj extension.

Values: NONE (projection information is not stored anywhere) | EXTERNAL_PRJ | EXTERNAL_AND_INTERNAL | INTERNAL_WKT

AutoCAD data files written this way with projection information will be recognized by FME and the free ArcGIS for AutoCAD application, which installs on top of the AutoCAD application.

This parameter can be used to allow the file specified in the Destination Autodesk AutoCAD File parameter to be written as the concatenation of the full contents of the file specified by the Template File parameter (described above) with all written data.

By default it is set to No, so only header information but no data is used from the template file if one is specified. If this parameter is set to Yes, then the full header and data information is used from the template file.

This parameter is not supported by the RealDWG writer.

The names of blocks created by the writer during automatic block creation will use the value of the autocad_block_name attribute if the attribute is present and this parameter is specified.

If a template file is used during writing, the block name will be used to try to match an existing block definition in the template file. This is similar to the behavior for insert entity writing. This parameter does not affect the use of the block name for insert entity writing.

If the intention is that only insert entities should be used to try to match block names with block definitions, set this parameter to No.

If not specified, the syntax may be the following, but may also be modified by the usage of the Created Block Name Prefix parameter:

<filename>_<writerkeyword>_FME_BLOCK_<blocknumber>

This parameter can be used to turn on/off purging of unused block and layer objects before the final drawing file is written out. Unused objects are those which are not referenced by other objects in the drawing. For example, for a layer to be eligible to be purged, there must be no entities on that layer.

This parameter can be used to set the INSUNITS variable of the destination dataset to one of the following units:

UNDEFINED | INCHES | FEET | MILES | MILLIMETERS | CENTIMETERS | METERS | KILOMETERS | MICROINCHES | MILS | YARDS | ANGSTROMS | NANOMETERS | MICRONS | DECIMETERS | DEKAMETERS | HECTOMETERS | GIGAMETERS | ASTRONOMICAL | LIGHTYEARS | PARSECS

When this parameter is not set, the INSUNITS variable is taken from a template file, if specified. The INSUNITS variable specifies the drawing units used in the scaling of inserted entities such as blocks.

This parameter behaves like a declaration of the type of units, but it does not change the scale or coordinates of existing entities, nor does it affect any entities to be written by the AutoCAD writer.

This parameter can be set to Yes to create a thumbnail image of the destination drawing model space within the destination drawing file. This image may then be used as a preview by enabled applications, such as Windows Explorer.

This parameter can be used to change how donut geometries on features with autocad_entity attributes not set to autocad_hatch or autocad_mpolygon, are represented as AutoCAD entities.

If this parameter is set to Yes, and a donut is planar, then it will be written as a hatch entity. Donuts with three dimensions will only be written as hatches if they have a constant Z value, which can be stored as the hatch elevation.

If a donut is not oriented in the XY plane, then the feature must have autocad_extrusion_x, autocad_extrusion_y, and autocad_extrusion_z attributes set which indicate the normal vector direction, orthogonal to the plane of the object. If not, the hatch may have Z values dropped, to force it into the XY plane.

If this parameter is set to No, or a donut is not planar, then that donut will be handled like a multi-area geometry, and will be written as a block.