Licensing options for this format begin with FME Professional Edition.
The AutoCAD® Civil 3D Reader module allows FME to read data used by Autodesk® Civil 3D and compatible systems. AutoCAD drawing files consist of drawing settings and configuration, as well as a series of entities, or graphic elements, organized into layers.
AutoCAD drawing files used by Autodesk Civil 3D extend the entities and configuration of CAD drawing, enabling them to contain objects useful for Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC).
Overview
FME provides broad support for many AutoCAD and entity types and options and for reading and writing AutoCAD file versions up to and including 2014, as described in the Autodesk AutoCAD DWG/DXF Reader/Writer format documentation.
- Drawing files created with version 2007 – 2009 of Autodesk Civil 3D (commonly referenced as just version 2007 files) are supported.
- Drawing files created with version 2010 – 2012 of Autodesk Civil 3D (commonly referenced as just version 2010 files), and version 2014 of Autodesk Civil 3D are supported as of FME 2014; however Alignment Superelevation sub-entities are not yet supported.
The AutoCAD Civil 3D Reader is additionally capable of reading AEC information from these drawing files; however, there are different version requirements.
More specifically, AEC information could be categorized into data, data relationship information, settings, and project information. Of these, only data and some data relationship information is supported by the AutoCAD Civil 3D Reader. This AEC data may further be categorized into objects, labels, and styles. Of these, only objects are supported by the AutoCAD Civil 3D Reader. The particular objects supported are listed in Feature Representation.
Workbench Reader Dataset
The value for the Reader Dataset is the path to a DWG/DXF File(s).
Reader Overview
The AutoCAD reader first reads the header and table information from the drawing file being processed, and caches information on blocks, shape files, layers, linetypes, and applications. These cached values are referenced by entities throughout the file and are needed when processing the entities.
The reader then extracts entities, one at a time, from the entity section of the drawing file and passes them on to the rest of the FME for processing. Complex entities such as polylines and inserts are extracted as single FME features. If the entity has attribution stored as extended entity data, then this is also read and placed in the feature.
When the AutoCAD reader encounters an entity type it does not know how to process, it simply sets the entity type of the feature and returns it. This feature is then logged by the FME correlation subsystem and the reader moves on to the next entity.