Exporting Block Reference to shp or sqlite missing data.

[Anonymous]

I am a Exporting a layer which has Block Reference objects to shp or sqlite.  When the export is completed, the custom Rotation and visibility parameters are missing from the export.  I have tried selecting all the export attributes (Properties, Block Attributes and Object Properties) but it does not export those two dynamic properties (rotation and visibility) for the Block Reference Objects.  I have also tried exporting to shp or sqlite.  Any help configuring the export to export these two properties would be appreciated.   

[braudpat]

Hello

Sorry no ACAD MAP today to check !

But I am almost sure that the dynamic blocks (and their specific properties) are not at all supported by OLD standard MAP Features ...

Regards, Patrice (I am not an Autodesk Advisor)

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

create attributes within your blocks, then assign the values of the attributes fields ==> configure these fields to show the parameter values.

And now you can export the blocks and their attribute-values (as these values now represent the parameter values)

HTH, - alfred -

[Anonymous]

I am closing this forum thread.   I do not have access to modify the dwg files.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I am closing this forum thread

...well, maybe anyone else might be interested to this answer...

>> I do not have access to modify the dwg files

In case you are not allowed to add attributes to the existing drawing entities you can start command _DATAEXTRACTION to create a list of points as ASCII-file, there you can export the parameter values of the dynamic properties. That file could be imported into any database quite easy.

- alfred -

[Gary_Braun]

Does anybody but me ever get tired of these cumbersome work-arounds for things that should simply work?

You're correct of course Alfred, there are almost always ways of getting things done somehow. But don't you ever get worn out jumping through hoops to get your work done for procedures that should be fairly routine? Map 3D has been around for years and is supposedly a mature product by now, so still having to go through this sort of nonsense is inexcusable.

Must be Monday morning, I'm feeling a bit cranky today.

-gb

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi Gary,

>> so still having to go through this sort of nonsense

Sounds like I should not have answered here.

For me not any software does all I need, so for me every way that brings me to the destination (with correct results) is better than no way.

I just wanted to bring up one additional option that might help someone else with the same question.

- alfred -

[Gary_Braun]

Hi Alfred,

Don't misunderstand me, you've helped out many people and I hope you continue to offer these ways to get things done. It's great that you not only know how to do these things but are willing to help others get their work done too.
My annoyance is with the software; I've seen too many of these six-step-work-arounds that involve dumping your data out into another format, running it through a third-party transmorgrifier, slaughtering a chicken and sprinkling its blood around your workspace, and then shoehorning whatever is left of your data back into you project through some arcane sequence of seldom used keyboard commands.
OK it may be a bit of an exaggeration, but Adesk really needs to spend some time making this product a little more functional.

-gb

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with Gary on both counts.  Thank you Alfred for a work-around command.  And these things should not be so obtuse.

I use AutoCAD occasionally; I'm a GIS-ESRI user.  Today, I need to export blocks out to a shapefile.  I don't really need any attributes, I  just want the block insertion points as x,y points in a shapefile.  Simple, huh?  It SHOULD be.  Seems like I did this years ago with no problems at all.  But in AutoCAD 2014 when I try to do the export, AutoCAD politely informs me that there are no entities to export.  What the heck does that mean?

So I used the _DATAEXTRACTION command and there are the blocks with their names and coordinates.  I can now create a shapefile in ArcGIS from the Excel spreadsheet.

But as Gary says, this should NOT be necessary; AutoCAD should just pump it out to a point shapefile; it should give me a dialog box like _DATAEXTRACTION to tell it what attributes I want.  We are talking BLOCKS goint to POINTS, which I think is a VERY COMMON scenario.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> Today, I need to export blocks out to a shapefile.  I don't really need any attributes

Command _MAPEXPORT, select filetype SHP (not multiclass..!) and the file-name in the first dialog.

In the next dialog select "Point" as type, either use layer-filter or select the objects you want to export and that's it,

If Map 3D tells you now it does not find any objects, then it would be interesting what your drawing contains and what type of geometry to select to export as points. IN that case please uplad a drawing with 2 or 3 of the objects you tried to export.

By default that are really just a few clicks.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Alfred.  You concisely summarize EXACTLY what I did.  Point as type (not multiclass), layer-filter (one layer, all entities; but it does the same if I manually select all the entities on the layer; all other layers are OFF), and that's it.

Except I get no entities selected.

If I go in and select each BLOCK on the layer (which is what I'm trying to export) and COPY that into another drawing and do the MAPEXPORT, it works just fine.

So why in one drawing and not another?  In the copied-to drawing, everything is on LAYER 0.  In the copied-from (original) drawing, all the points I want are on a single layer.  BUT THAT IS NOT WHERE THE DATA IS!  I had to go back and refresh myself on AutoCAD's arcana.  Blocks are INSERT entities and these ALWAYS EXIST ONLY ON LAYER 0.  It doesn't matter that what is being displayed (and what is selectable) is on a different layer; you HAVE to include Layer 0 in the export.

So I went back and did the map export from the original file, but this time told it to use Layer "0" as well as Layer "Level 15" and manually selected the points (blocks) as I had done before.  But this time it worked.  Because it could read the selected Layer "Level 15" entities from Layer "0" where the block insertion points live (even though they are not visible or selectable there).

I should NOT have to remember this because it is not intuitive.  AutoCAD should deal with its implementation-specific details.  If I'm selecting something on a layer and it is a block, then go get the reference and don't bother me about it.  I don't care if it's on Layer 0 or in memory somewhere or on the disk or in the cloud; I DID NOT PUT IT THERE SO I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR IT.  Can you imagine how much fun it would be if I had to keep track of where AutoCAD was storing things in RAM?

In short, if it LOOKS like it's on a layer then it should BEHAVE like it's on a layer.  Don't think I'm just picking on AutoDesk; Esri has their own arcana with ArcGIS (and it is just as inexcusable).

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I should NOT have to remember this because it is not intuitive

I can fully understand what you are estimating 😉

In trainings my "safe way" to run that exporting is to follow these steps:

• freeze all layers so you only see what you want to export
• then run the export without any filter, just "all you see now"
• after export turn back your layers to thawed state (the more better way might be to use the layer-states to save the state before MAPEXPORT so after then it's just one restore to get all visible like before)

HTH, - alfred -