Autodesk AutoCAD Map 3D Object Data Writer Parameters

File Options

AutoCAD Version

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

Template File

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.

Preserve Model Space Data

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 Model Space contents of the file specified by the Template File parameter with all written data.

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

Preserve Paper Space Data

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 Paper Space contents of the file specified by the Template File parameter with all written data.

By default, it is set to Yes, so the Paper Space entities are used from the template file if one is specified. If this parameter is set to No, then the Paper Space entities are not used from the template file.

Advanced

Default Application Name

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

Output Defined Attributes Only

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

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

AutoCAD Shape File Folder

Specifies the folder in which to look for shape files (*.shp) from which information about SHAPE entities will be extracted for writing. For more information, see Shapes.

Created Block Name Prefix

The names of blocks created by the writer during automatic block creation.

This parameter may be used to specify a prefix for block names that are created by the writer during automatic block generation. Automatic block generation occurs for features written with aggregate and other geometries which are best represented by block entities.

This parameter is only used when Use the Block Name to Create Blocks parameter is set to No, and is not used for features that already have an autocad_block_name attribute specified.

The names of created blocks will take the form:

Coordinate System Storage

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. Lastly, it can be stored internally using the native Coordinate System storage which will be recognized by the native AutoCAD application.

Values:

None (projection information is not stored anywhere)
External PRJ
Internal Native
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.

Purge Unused Objects

This parameter can be used to toggle purging of unused objects or entities 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.

If set to Yes, the AutoCAD writer 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

Prefer writing donuts as hatches

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.

Write block object data to

This parameter can be used specify how an FME feature with composite geometry (such as those with fme_geometry type of fme_aggregate or fme_donut) will store its attribute information as object data.

Insert: This is the default value. It indicates that object data will only be stored on the insert entity (block reference) that will be created from the composite geometry.
All: This value indicates that copies of the object data will be stored on the insert as well as on every entity part that is created within the block definition. This is a good option if the insert will later be exploded into parts and object data is desired on each part.

Note In an AutoCAD-to-AutoCAD translation, if insert entities in the source dataset are not exploded, this parameter is not applicable to that insert data, because it is not stored as FME features with composite geometry.