AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

Hi,

We use mapinfo as our native GIS and can use these .TAB files with MAPIMPORT in C3D, but what I would really like to do is use MAPCONNECT like can be done for .SHP files, etc.. I've enquired with safe.com and they have confirmed that their FME product doesn't support 2013. Are there any other choices?

thanks

- Mick

[#2]

check out the osgeo OGR FDO provider over at

http://fdo.osgeo.org

Look for FDO Open Source 3.7.0 Beta1

and get the OGR Provider.

You need to get the "FDO API and Common Binaries" and the "OGR Provider"

You can find information on setting up the OSGEO fdo providers on autodesk website or autodesk university.

[#3]

Thanks for the reply Andrew. I've looked at this a bit since your post and I'm afraid I'm a bit lost and was hoping you could give a few more pointers:

I've downloaded the OGR provider and FDO API and Common Binaries files (64bit windows) and extracted them. I read the readme and it seems I need to open these files in Visual Studio 2005 and compile them? is this right? I went to download this, but couldn't even work out what what version I needed here (if any).

I searched the autodesk site and found some relevant references, but unfortunately I'm not clued in enough to work out what is relevant and what is not.

Does installing this FDO provider then allow connection to any .TAB file from any directory? or does FDO need to be set up for a particular directory?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

Regards

- Mick

[#4 · Accepted solution]

You don't need visual studio.

From the http://fdo.osgeo.org/content/fdo-370-downloads page

You need to download the "FDO API and Common Binaries" from the Windows 64bit Binaries"FDO Core" section under the "Windows 64bit Binaries".

It should give you a file with the name fdo-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar.gz.

You aslo need to download the "OGR Provider" from the "FDO Providers" section.

This will be fdoogr-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar.gz.

You need to extract the files contained in these 2 archives. 7-zip is good for this and its free.

This will give you 2 files, fdo-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar and fdoogr-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar. These are archives also and need to have the files extracted. It's best to extract them to a temporary folder first. Remember to maintain the folders within the archives when you extract them.

The fdo-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar file contains the core files used by all the osgeo fdo providers.  These will be contained in a folder named "Bin" with a few files in a folder called "COM" within the bin folder.

Before doing the next step, make a backup of the files in the civil 3d fdo folder incase something does not work. This way you can copy the original files back and restore the original fdo capabilities.

All the dll files in the Bin folder you extracted from the fdo-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar file, need to be copied to the FDO folder for civil 3d 2013. It is located here C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013\bin\FDO on my machine, which is a 64 bit machine. It should be similar to yours. If not, it will be located under you civil 3d install directory.

All the files in the Com folder need to be copied to the Com folder under civil 3d's FDO folder, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013\bin\FDO\com

Next you need to copy the OGRProvider.dll file from the fdoogr-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar file over to the FDO folder for civil 3d 2013.

Now you need to add the OGR entry into the providers.xml file to make civil 3d aware of the new FDO provider.

You need to copy the providers.xml file from the civil 3d fdo folder to somewhere that you can edit it. If you leave it where it is and try to save any changes, windows stops you. The desktop or your My Documents folder work fine.

Next open the copied civil 3d providers.xml file in notepad.

Open the providers.xml file, extracted from the fdo-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar file, in notepad.

Locate the OSGeo.OGR.3.7 Feature provider reference in the providers.xml file, extracted from the fdo-win64-3.7.0_4308.tar file. It should look like this -

  <FeatureProvider>
    <Name>OSGeo.OGR.3.7</Name>
    <DisplayName>OSGeo FDO Provider for OGR</DisplayName>
    <Description>FDO Access to OGR Data Sources</Description>
    <IsManaged>False</IsManaged>
    <Version>3.7.0.0</Version>
    <FeatureDataObjectsVersion>3.7.0.0</FeatureDataObjectsVersion>
    <LibraryPath>.\OGRProvider.dll</LibraryPath>
  </FeatureProvider>

You need to copy the entire above section into the copied providers.xml file from the civil 3d fdo folder.

You need to paste it into the file so that it sits between a </FeatureProvider> entry and a <FeatureProvider> entry or after the last </FeatureProvider> entry and the </FeatureProviderRegistry> entry. Look at how the other entries are and you should get the idea.

Now save the providers.xml file copied from the civil 3d folder, and close both notepads.

Next copy the modified copied providers.xml back to the civil 3d FDO folder and overwrite the existing file.

Now start civil 3d and there should be a new FDO provider in the data connect panel, named something like Add OGR Connection. This is the one to use for mapinfo tab files.

[#5]

Andrew, thanks so much for this detailed reply... I'm sure this will do the trick. Unfortunately, I won't be able to try it out for a week or so, but will provide feedback when I can sit down with it again. Once again... thanks

Regards

- Mick

[#6]

Andrew, I've just got back to my computer and had a chance to try this out. Thanks - this worked just fine. I just needed to know that the instructions were actually what I wanted to do.

Regards

- Mick

[#7]

Hi Andrew

I did all steps, but  I do not know fill row DataSource, to active Login Button, I am sending image.

thanks in advanced

Simon

[#8]

Enter the full pathname for the target file into this space and it should allow you to proceed.

[#9]

Thanks so much for your attention, I will try again,

simon