Esri Mapping Specification for CAD (MSC) Feature Representation

In addition to the generic FME feature attributes that FME Workbench adds to all features (see About Feature Type Attributes), this format also adds format-specific attributes (Format Attributes).

The Esri MSC Reader and Writer support all of the same features supported by the AutoCAD DWG/DXF Reader and Writer and additionally use the exact same attributes (that is, all the format-specific attributes are prefixed by autocad, not by msd).

All Esri MSC features which are selected by a feature class will have the attributes described in the table below.

Attribute Name	Contents
autocad_layer	The name of the feature’s layer. This is stored when reading for reasons of convenience. When writing, this attribute specifies the name of the layer to which entity information will be written, and will take precedence over layer naming by feature type fanout. In the absence of this attribute, the DEF line name will be used for the layer name. Value: char(33) Default: No default
msd_type	The FME name for the type of MSC geometry which this feature represents. The Esri MSC Reader and Writer make use of an additional value msd_feature_class to represent FME features that do not have entity information but which store MSC data information on their attributes. Range: msd_annotation, msd_collection, msd_multipatch, msd_point, msd_polygon, msd_polyline Default: No default
autocad_entity	The traditional AutoCAD attribute for the type of entity which this feature represents. This is used secondarily in relation to the msd_type attribute. The Esri MSC Reader and Writer make use of an additional value msd_feature_class to represent FME features that do not have entity information but which store MSC data information on their attributes. Range: See the table AutoCAD Entity Types and Descriptions Default: No default
msd_entity_key	A unique value per entity that is used on read to indicate which MSC features came from the same entity. Value: char(30) Default: No default

Note: When reading, if block references have associated MSC data it will be attached to the insert point for the block. If block references have parts that have associated MSC data, and blocks are exploded, the MSC data associated with the block parts will be attached to the features created for the block parts.