AutoCAD Connector - Am I missing something?

[OwenWhitehouse_ASTI]

This tool barely functions and does not recognize AutoCAD entities at all. Layer, color, entity type, nothing.

Can we please get some attention on this? I mean, it's not even in the list of labels to post to this forum...

[Tobias_Hathorn]

Hi Owen - I'll start an internal ticket so we can get feedback to you, can you describe what you're trying to achieve?

Sounds like going FROM AutoCAD TO Data Exchange?

and then where are you reading that Exchange? Back into AutoCAD, or into Revit, or...? 

• I believe that Layer information should be stored in the Exchange
• Also any block attributes should be stored.
• What do you mean by color? the surface color of a 3d object?
• and when you say entity type are you talking about the basic geometry elements? these should be stored too

Thanks for clarifying,

Tobias

[OwenWhitehouse_ASTI]

Tobias,

I have been testing the loading of DWG file data into Docs using Data Exchange. Are there other workflows I should be investigating?

We're trying to use Data Exchange to help us surface PowerBI reports for clients who are using AutoCAD and Plant 3D. The first report we want is a count of entities from DWGs, their properties, and which application created them (AutoCAD, P3D, C3D, Advance Steel, etc.)

Thus far, we're getting almost zero usable data in the PowerBI data connection, as shown in my attachment. You can see there that the data contains no layer, color or other properties, and the viewer shows the same. All AutoCAD entities are shown as a curve_name_undefined in the viewer.

[Tobias_Hathorn]

Thanks for the extra information - that helps understand what you're after.

The Viewer properties leave ALOT to be desired. We are addressing this now, but for your purposes, the properties displayed in the Viewer aren't useful - or even factual.

Have you tried loading the data exchange into Power BI yet? I would expect you'd see more properties there, and these would be accurate to what's actually in the Data Exchange. 

[OwenWhitehouse_ASTI]

In my original post I attached an image of the data that PowerBI sees from the Data Exchange. I'll put it in the body of this reply. There is no useful data provided, thus my comment.

As you can see, the columns presented are for Revit objects, not AutoCAD. No Handle, no layer, no color, no object type. One of the columns is even called Revit Category Type ID!

We're really looking forward to seeing this functionality get off the ground for AutoCAD and P3D, and by the votes the Plant 3D Connector is getting, we think we're not alone!

https://portal.productboard.com/autodeskforge/11-autodesk-data-exchange/c/136-plant-3d-connector

[Tobias_Hathorn]

I see the attached screenshot now - sorry I missed that.

The team investigated overnight. In short, the AutoCAD connector supports geometry extraction, but does not yet support attributes. 

This is documented as a 'known limitation' on the help docs, and is something the team is working on adding now as it is expected to work by you and other customers as well.

[OwenWhitehouse_ASTI]

Thank you for having the team look into it. Just so we're on the same page, the exchange data does not contain geometry information either. The viewer is obviously getting access to a different data set than the PowerBI connector sees. Both data sets are very incomplete.

My assumption is that when you say 'attributes', you mean 'parameters', as the Known Issue documentation says nothing about attributes.

Can we please get some documentation of what AutoCAD DWG entities are supported in this process, and to what level? Right now, as I mentioned, this connector is not useful.

Here are the column headers we see in Power BI.

id

ExternalElementId

name

category

Revit Category Type Id

Operation

urn

Exchange Id

Exchange Name

DataExchangeSimpleEntities.svf

Interestingly, there are some data entries in the linked Power BI data that seem to indicate that there are JSON container files with attributes and properties, but unless there is a way to access those outside of the SDK, I don't see them being helpful either.

[Tobias_Hathorn]

Hi Owen - Good news, the AutoCAD connector will support parameters imminently - I'm checking when I can get an alpha build to test out with you, either by sending it to you, or via a zoom call. Will follow up when I know more details.

Yes, exactly - the viewer is showing different properties from PropertiesDB, not the Exchange data base. Are you missing geometry elements, or geometry properties? The connector should support geometry element representations like the line and the circle in your screenshot. If you're missing geometry from your AutoCAD canvas, it'd be good to know what so we can investigate.

This is the screenshot from the team's test and they see slightly different parameters than what you posted. We do have 'standard' group parameters in all exchanges and these do have Revit-centric names like Category, Type, etc... 

[OwenWhitehouse_ASTI]

That's great news, Tobias! Yes, ping me to set up a time to meet and review working with the alpha.

We did discover that most DWG entities don't make into the viewer, especially any that are 3D or have been created from object classes that are created by toolset verticals. Blocks don't seem to make it either, but that might just be due to the lack of visibility in the viewer and the Power BI data.

When we have attempted to work with any of the more advanced entities in the DWG, they either don't show in the viewer or the Exchange simply spins and spins, or fatal errors out.

I'm a bit worried by the image you shared, as it looks like each entity gets its own data table. Hopefully all objects of each type get one table, otherwise building reports will be almost impossible.