Question

Is there a way to make updates in ArcMap sync with AutoCAD (or at least make that update process quicker?)

  • 23 August 2018
  • 2 replies
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Hi: I'm new to this forum and just found out about FME. I was curious if there was a way to use FME to create a workflow that allows you to update changes to a .mxd in ArcMap then have the changes update to a .dwg in AutoCAD. Or at the very least make the process of transferring over pt/line shapefiles easier to AutoCAD for .dwgs that need regular update maintenance. In particular I'm thinking of a city/municipality utility map where changes are made on the ArcMap side then translated to the AutoCAD side (or vice versa as many engineering firms tend to create construction/as-built drawings with AutoCAD). Any thoughts?


2 replies

Userlevel 1
Badge +17

You can use a ChangeDetector to get the changes from two datasets and you can write these changes to Autocad. Here is a handy link for working with Autocad: https://knowledge.safe.com/articles/22968/getting-started-with-autocad.html

Badge +2

Hi @mattjelbert,

If you are new to FME it would be good to have a look at some of our tutorials that explain a little bit more about how the software works: The Getting Started with FME Desktop series is a 4 part tutorial covering some of the basics with video explanations as well.

FME Desktop can handle both .dwg and .mxd formats (note .mxd is only supported on Windows OS) and because of this it is likely that you should be able to set up a workspace that can look for updates (@stalknecht suggested one example of how to do this) and then transform data accordingly. If you want to automate this process further then you could look into our FME Server product which provides a level of automation for these workspaces - based on a schedule, or perhaps using Publications to monitoring a directory or email etc and then setting a job to run your workspace based on these events.

If you would like to trial FME Desktop you can make a request here: https://www.safe.com/fme/fme-desktop/trial-download/

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