ESRI's ArcGIS for AutoCAD Provides Easy GIS and CAD Interoperability

ArcGIS for AutoCAD users can view and query enterprise GIS information from countless public and private sites that use ArcGIS Server to publish map services over the Web. This GIS information can prove invaluable to CAD designers or engineers who need more information about the environment and infrastructure that will affect their design decisions. Moreover, they can access the map services in AutoCAD without translating or converting the underlying GIS data. Map service content is automatically projected into AutoCAD based on the coordinate system of the CAD drawing. ArcGIS for AutoCAD Build 200 supports ArcGIS Server 9.3 cached map services, ArcGIS Server map services on secure servers, and free and premium map service content available from ArcGIS Online Services.

In addition, ESRI has developed a data-encoding method called mapping specification for drawings, which has been implemented in ArcGIS for AutoCAD Build 200 and ArcGIS 9.3. This new data-encoding method allows users to create, manipulate, and define how CAD data is organized and attributed as GIS content while remaining true to existing CAD standards. It also offers tools that allow users to create and edit GIS feature classes within standard AutoCAD files and add attributes to any AutoCAD entity. ArcGIS for AutoCAD API tools are also available to build CAD-based, GIS-ready applications. AutoCAD files enhanced with mapping specification for drawings can be used directly as GIS content in applications such as ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS for AutoCAD, or custom AutoCAD applications that have implemented the data-encoding method.