AutoCAD Map 3D is Autodesk’s GIS mapping toolset for AutoCAD on Windows. It lets planners, engineers and utility mapping teams work with CAD drawings and geographic data in one environment. A parcel layer from a spatial database and a DWG site plan can therefore share a map, a coordinate system and the same editing commands. It is commercial software, supplied as one of the specialized toolsets included with AutoCAD.
Maps built from connections
An AutoCAD Map 3D map is saved as a DWG file, but much of its content is a set of links rather than copied geometry. One map can combine spatial databases such as Oracle or SQL Server, file stores such as SDF and SHP, and other DWG drawings. It can also combine ODBC attribute sources, raster images such as aerial photos and DEM files, and WMS or WFS web services.
Each connected data set becomes a layer in Display Manager, separate from ordinary AutoCAD layers. Users can reorder, style, hide and plot these layers. The connection is live: changes at the source appear in the map, and edits made in the map can be written back.
GIS features and drawing objects
Geospatial features describe real-world things, such as a road or a utility pole, and live in a feature source like an Oracle database or a shapefile. AutoCAD Map 3D reads them through FDO (Feature Data Objects) technology, so the user can work with them without converting the data.
Drawing objects are ordinary CAD entities such as lines and closed polylines. Users can draw them in the map or attach and query existing DWG files to pull in only the needed objects. They can save edits back to the source drawing. Data from every source is transformed into the map’s coordinate system as it is added.
When a live link is not wanted, an import adds a static copy instead. LAS or XYZ point clouds can also be brought in.
Editing shared data
Users can edit map data from any source with standard AutoCAD commands. Features can be saved to their source automatically, or edited offline and updated at the end. Where the source supports it, checking out a feature locks it against other users until it is checked back in.
COGO input and drawing cleanup
Coordinate geometry (COGO) tools create and measure lines, curves and polygons from bearing, azimuth and distance values. Drawing cleanup finds digitizing errors such as duplicates, undershoots and dangling lines, which the user can correct interactively or fix automatically.
Coordinate systems
Assigning a coordinate system turns a drawing into a located map. AutoCAD Map 3D includes a library of predefined EPSG and Mentor systems and lets users define their own.
Attribute tables and schemas
The Data Table shows and edits spatial and attribute data for features. External databases and ODBC sources can be joined to a feature layer, making their columns available for themes and queries. The Schema Editor defines feature classes and their properties, for example valves, pipes and hydrants. Bulk Copy moves data between stores and geospatial formats.
Styles, themes and surfaces
Styles set how a layer looks, either for all its items or for those matching given criteria. Labels can follow curves and use expressions. Themes change the style by attribute value, for instance colouring parcels by size or counties by population density.
Surfaces built from DEM or ESRI GRID data can show elevation, slope and aspect, generate contours and use hillshading. Users can drape aerial photos and vector data over terrain and view them in 3D. They can style point clouds by classification, elevation, LiDAR intensity or RGB values.
Buffers and overlays
A buffer creates a zone at a set distance around features, such as 1,000 feet from a river. Users can then select objects inside it. An overlay compares two layers, such as a flood zone and an enterprise zone, and produces a new layer for the area where they intersect.
Utility industry models
Enterprise industry models give AutoCAD Map 3D structured data models for water, wastewater, gas and electric networks. Users can convert existing GIS data into these models. In an industry model drawing, new features follow the model’s rules, and extra tools become available, including attribute forms, reports and network tracing. A trace follows the network from start features with attribute-based stop conditions, so a user can find every customer downstream of a failed pump.
Map books and publishing
Users can plot maps as single pages or as map books. Map books split a large area into tiled pages with legends, titles and insets. Users can publish them as DWF files. Layers, styles, labels and queries can be published to Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server for browser viewing.
AutoCAD Map 3D also exports to SHP and DGN and writes FDO layer data to KML. Plain AutoCAD cannot follow links to external spatial data, so a map meant for AutoCAD users is converted fully to DWG. For another Map 3D user, eTransmit packages every file a map uses.
