Autodesk AutoCAD Map 3D Object Data Reader Parameters

The schema will be generated using layers in the source dataset as FME feature types, and one data feature will be read for each entity. This mode can be thought of as spatial, since each data feature read in this mode uniquely represents an entity with all its referenced object data table records resolved onto it as attributes. This is the recommended default reading mode for translating from the AutoCAD Map 3D Object Data Reader to another FME format.

If a certain entity contains object data in n different object data tables, then only one feature is created, which stores the entity information and has all the attributes of the n associated object data tables. If an entity does not have object data associated with it, it simply has no object data attributes on it.

The schema will be generated using a combination of both layers and object data tables as FME feature types, as they are arranged in the source dataset. The data features read according to the layer-based feature types will be for each entity in the source dataset, and the data features read according to the object data table feature types will be for the records per entity in each object data table. This mode can be thought of as relational, since the each data feature read in this mode represents either the object data attributes or the entities of the source dataset, and the two types are linked or related together by an entity handle.

If a certain entity references object data records in n different object data tables with a total of m object data records referenced, then one entity feature is created with an FME feature type based on the entity’s layer. At the same time, m non-geometric object data features are created, each having the object data attributes of one the m object data table records referenced by that entity.

These object data record features will have an FME feature type based on the object data table that holds the record they represent. They will have an autocad_entity attribute with a value of autocad_od, and an autocad_entity_handle attribute that can be used to relate the feature that stores the associated entity information.

This is the recommended reading mode for translating from the AutoCAD Map 3D Object Data reader to the AutoCAD Map 3D Object Data writer.

The schema will be generated using a combination of both layers and object data tables in the source dataset as FME feature types. This mode can be thought of as object data, since each data feature read with an object data table feature type uniquely defines an entity object data table record with the referencing entity information copied onto it as geometry and entity attributes.

If a certain entity contains object data in n different object data tables with a total of m object data records referenced by it, then m+1 different features are created, one for each object data table record referenced, and one for the original entity.

Each feature will store a copy of the entity information and have object data from only one object data table record that it represents. Data features created for two different object data table records that are referenced by the same entity will have identical values for the autocad_od_entity_key attribute. If an entity does not have any object data associated with it, the original entity feature will use the entity's layer name as the FME feature type.

When checked, this parameter explodes blocks and return the entities that form the components of the block as separate features.

When the reader resolves blocks, it outputs a feature for each of the AutoCAD entities that are part of the block definition. The original insert is not output. This results in the full graphical representation of the block transferred through FME, but the exact insertion point of the block is lost.

Each block member feature is given the attribute autocad_block_number which is set to the same value for each block so that the features comprising each block may be combined in subsequent processing. Arbitrary deep block nesting is permitted, however, the autocad_block_number attribute is only updated for each block at the outermost level.  By default, all block members will be on the same layer as that of the original block.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

Use Block Feature Type for Components

Specifies how the reader sets the feature type of block component entities when resolving (or exploding) insert entities. This parameter applies only if Explode Blocks into Entities is checked.

When the reader resolves blocks, it outputs a feature for each of the AutoCAD entities that are part of the block definition. If this parameter is checked, all block members will be on the same layer-based feature type as that of the original block. If this parameter is unchecked, the block members will appear on their respective layer-based feature types.

This parameter is useful when resolving components and using a layer-based schema, and you want block component features to share a layer-based feature type. To change the layer information on the component features to match their layer-based feature type, use the Use Block Layer Information for Components parameter.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

Use Block Layer Information for Components

Specifies how the reader sets the layer information attributes of the block component entities when resolving (or exploding) insert entities. This parameter applies only if Explode Blocks into Entities is checked.

When the reader resolves blocks, it outputs a feature for each of the AutoCAD entities that are part of the block definition.

If this parameter is checked, all block members will have the same layer information as that of the original block. If this parameter is unchecked, the block members will have the layer information of their respective layers.

Examples of layer specific attributes are autocad_layer, autocad_layer_hidden, and autocad_layer_color. This parameter also affects related symbology attributes such as autocad_lineweight and autocad_color which may have ByLayer values.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

Store Insert Location on Components

When checked, the reader adds the insert point location as attributes to the block component entities when resolving (or exploding) inserts entities.

When the reader resolves blocks, it outputs a feature for each of the AutoCAD entities that are part of the block definition. The original insert is not part of the block definition, but this parameter allows the insert location to still be represented.

Each block member feature will include the attribute autocad_block_insert_[xyz].

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

Preserve Insert Points

If the parameter Explode Blocks Into Entities is checked, and this parameter is also checked, then the insert points of exploded blocks are output as point features.

Explode Selected Blocks – This parameter is a space-delimited list of the block names that are to be exploded, and is processed only when Explode Blocks into Entities is checked.

Read as Geometry Instances

If the parameter Explode Blocks Into Entities is checked and this parameter is also checked, then blocks will be read as Geometry Definitions and Instances. In this way, a block definition will be stored as a geometry definition and each block insert point will become a geometry instance.

Specifies whether the reader will explode the mtext entities into separate text entities.

State:

• Checked – The resulting text features represent fragments of text with the same mtext properties such as style and location.
• Unchecked – The mtext entity will be read as a single text feature.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

Determines whether polylines should have their elevation attribute treated as a Z coordinate (applies to light-weight polylines and 2D polylines).

AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: This option should not be checked when performing AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translations as the elevations converted to Z coordinates when read in will not be converted back to elevation attributes when written out.

When checked, this parameter instructs FME to read the entities from the model space.

If this parameter and Read Selected Paper Spaces are both checked, entities from the model space and paper space may be read. These entities are from spaces that represent distinct views and may overlap or be greatly separated (which may reduce visibility during inspection).

Determines whether FME will read the extended entity data associated with AutoCAD entities in the List representation.

By default, FME will read extended entity data in this representation. See Extended Entity Data for details on these representations.

Determines whether FME will read the Attribute entity information commonly associated with Insert entities.

By default, FME will read extended entity data in this representation.

This information consists of the fme_attrib_info attributes as a structured list. This is the same information that can be added to features as attributes with the Read Visible Attributes as Text Entities, though in a list representation. See Inserts for details.

Instructs the reader regarding reading of XRecord entries in the extension dictionaries of entities. These XRecord entries may become FME feature attributes accordingly.

State:

• Unchecked (default) – Any XRecord entries will not be read.
• Checked – The XRecord data will become FME feature attributes similar to the list form of Extended Entity Data, but with attributes with names of the form autocad_xrecord_data*.

Check Prepend Table Name to prefix attribute names with the object data table from which they came. This applies to both the attributes on FME feature types which correspond to columns in object data tables, and the attributes on FME data features which correspond to fields of object data records in object data tables.

Enter a Separator Character (any character) that will be used to separate the object data table name from the object data information when Prepend Table Name is checked.

Use this parameter to expose Format Attributes in FME Workbench when you create a workspace:

• In a dynamic scenario, it means these attributes can be passed to the output dataset at runtime.
• In a non-dynamic scenario, this parameter allows you to expose additional attributes on multiple feature types. Click the browse button to view the available format attributes (which are different for each format) for the reader.

Coordinate systems may be extracted from input feature data sources, may come predefined with FME, or may be user-defined. FME allows different output and input coordinate systems, and performs the required coordinate conversions when necessary.

For systems that know their coordinate system, the Coordinate System field will display Read from Source and FME will read the coordinate system from the source dataset. For most other input sources, the field will display Unknown (which simply means that FME will use default values). In most cases, the default value is all you'll need to perform the translation.

You can always choose to override the defaults and choose a new coordinate system. Select More Coordinate Systems from the drop-down menu to open the Coordinate System Gallery.

Changing a Reprojection

To perform a reprojection, FME typically uses the CS-MAP reprojection engine, which includes definitions for thousands of coordinate systems, with a large variety of projections, datums, ellipsoids, and units. However, GIS applications have slightly different algorithms for reprojecting data between different coordinate systems. To ensure that the data FME writes matches exactly to your existing data, you can use the reprojection engine from a different application.

To change the reprojection engine, Select Workspace Parameters > Spatial > Reprojection Engine. In the example shown, you can select Esri (but the selection here depends on your installed applications):

A search envelope (also known as a bounding box) is a rectangular area that defines a geographic area. In FME, the easiest way to define a search envelope is to use search envelope parameters.

Defining a search envelope is the most efficient method of selecting an area of interest because FME will read only the data that is necessary – it does not have to read an entire dataset. Search Envelope parameters apply to both vector and raster datasets and can be particularly efficient if the source format has a spatial index.

Most FME readers have parameters to define the search envelope of data that is being read:

The parameters include the x and y coordinates of the bounding box as well as a parameter that defines the coordinate system.

How to Define the Bounding Box

Using the minimum and maximum x and y parameters, define a bounding box that will be used to filter the input features. Only features that intersect with the bounding box are returned. Note that the bounding box intersection is not a full geometry intersection (based on spatial relationships) that would be returned by a transformer like the SpatialFilter.

This parameter controls which storage type the reader will look at first when trying to read a coordinate system from the file:

• Esri - The reader will first look for an ESRI PRJ coordinate system on read.
• Native – The reader will first look for a natively stored coordinate system on read. In the event the preferred storage method does not have a coordinate system that FME can use, FME will attempt to read the coordinate system from the other method as a fallback.

Check this parameter if you have an Esri World file (*.wld or *.wld3) that you want FME to use when determining the coordinates for features in your dataset.

FME will search the folder of the dataset for a file with the same name as your dataset but with a .wld or .wld3 extension. If it cannot find a file with that name, it will then look for the file esri_cad.wld or esri_cad.wld3 within the dataset folder. If either of those files exists, FME will use the information in the files to translate the coordinates of the features in the dataset to their new geospatial coordinates.

If the files cannot be found, then the translation will continue, using the coordinate information found in the dataset and without performing any additional transformation.

Instructs FME to ignore the user-defined coordinate system of the file being read.

Default: FME applies the UCS when reading the coordinate data.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Always checked

Determines whether to resolve the entity's color, or keep it as ByLayer. When checked (default), the autocad_color attribute will contain the actual color by value (an integer between 0 and 255 inclusive) therefore preserving the original attributes.

For example, if you have an entity on a "rivers" layer, with its color set to ByLayer, and the layer color set to "blue":

• If you check this option, then the autocad_color attribute will be set to "blue" (its equivalent integer value).
• If you do not check this option, then the autocad_color attribute will remain set to ByLayer (an integer value of 256) or ByBlock (an integer value of 0), and the components will all be assigned the same layer color or block color, respectively.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

This parameter can be used to toggle purging of unused objects or entities after the target dataset has been loaded into FME, but before reading features. This will not modify the target dataset.

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.

If this option is checked, the reader will attempt to purge the following object types:

• Blocks
• Layers
• Detail View Styles
• Dimension Styles
• Groups
• Linetypes
• Materials
• MLine Styles
• MLeader Styles
• Registered Applications
• Section View Styles
• Table Styles
• Text Styles
• Visual Styles

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

Specifies whether or not to read hatches and MPolygons in a way that preserves their complex properties.

State:

• Checked – The loops will be aggregated together as polygons, and ordered such that any enclosing loop will be stored before any enclosed loop. Attributes may be added to store polyline bulge arc information.
• Unchecked – The loops of each hatch entity will be converted to areas and aggregated together, and polyline bulge arcs will be interpolated into lines.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Checked

Specifies whether the reader should leave a raster unclipped and only store the clipping information as attributes, or whether it should apply the clipping.

State:

• Checked – The raster will not be clipped and the clipping information may be retrieved from the feature attributes, this allows clipped raster features to pass through FME with no loss of data.
• Unchecked (default) – Clipped rasters being read will have their clipping information applied, and anything outside the clipping bounds will be lost.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Checked

Specifies whether or not to resolve (explode) dimensions into their individual pieces.

State:

• Checked – Each geometric piece of the dimension will be output as a separate feature, as well as a non-geometric autocad_dimension_def feature.
• Unchecked – An aggregate containing all the pieces of the original dimension will be output (i.e., an autocad_dimension).

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Unchecked

Determines how multi-line entities are read.

State:

• Unchecked (default) – Multi-line geometry is constructed of lines containing only the explicit vertexes of the base line and the relative vertexes of additional lines.
• Checked – Additional evaluation of multi-line properties is performed, which may result in additional vertexes and gaps in the geometry. The evaluated geometry form is a more complete geometric representation of a multi-line entity, but cannot be written without loss by the AutoCAD writer.

When checked, the reader, in addition to vectorizing the splines, stores the spline coefficients as attributes.

See the description of Splines for the attribute names used to store the spline definition.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Checked

Specifies whether a zero-length arc should be converted into a point feature (that is, autocad_point).

If the feature becomes a point, it will still retain all the attributes it had while it was an arc.

Usual AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation setting: Never checked

Determines whether or not AutoCAD groups will be read.

Default: FME will not read groups.

Determines whether or not AutoCAD xrecord data will be read from the dictionaries in a drawing.

Default: FME will not read these XRecords.

This option creates non-geometric autocad_xrecord features with attributes similar to those created with the Entity XRecord Data Reading option.

See also XRecord Data

Determines whether FME will read AutoCAD entities that represent External References.

Default: FME will not read External References.

If you select this option, the reader will add additional attributes describing the layer properties for the layer of each feature. These include autocad_layer_linetype, autocad_layer_color, and autocad_layer_lineweight.

Specifies whether the reader will ignore all features on layers that are in a frozen state.

• Unchecked (default) – Features are read from frozen layers.
• Checked – Features located on frozen layers are not read from the input dataset.

Specifies whether the reader will ignore all features on layers that are in a frozen state from the perspective of a Paper Space Viewport.

• Unchecked (default) – Features are read from frozen layers.
• Checked – Features located on frozen layers are not read from the input dataset.

Specifies whether the reader will ignore all features on layers that are in a hidden state.

• Unchecked (default) – Features are read from hidden layers.
• Checked – Features located on hidden layers are not read from the input dataset.

Specifies whether the reader will ignore all features on layers that are in a locked state.

• If checked, features located on locked layers are not read from the input dataset.
• If unchecked, the features are read from locked layers.

Determines whether FME will attempt to read a graphical representation of Proxy entities which are placeholders for certain unsupported objects.

Default: FME will read Proxy Graphics.

Determines whether FME will attempt to read certain AutoCAD System Variables that are stored within the drawing.

Default: FME will not read Drawing System Variables.

Determines whether the reader will attempt to read Region entities as Area geometries rather than as Surface geometries.

Default: FME will read region entities as Areas.

Determines whether FME will attempt to read raster entities stored in the drawing.

Default: FME will read raster entities.

Determines whether FME will output layer definitions as features.

Default: FME will not output layer definition features.

DXF Header File

When reading DXF files, this parameter instructs the reader to use the specified DXF header file as the header for the file being read. This option is used in situations where organizations produce headerless DXF files to save storage space.

Specify the full pathname to the DXF header file.