AutoCAD Map 3D can import many of the standard GIS file formats, and bring them into standard

AutoCAD objects in a format that you are familiar with, and work with easily using standard editing

tools.

You will import some sewer lines for the city of Redding, focusing on just bringing in the geometry.

To get started, open a new blank drawing, then on the ribbon, Insert tab, Import panel, click Map

Import. In the Import Location dialog, you can navigate to the files that you want to import. This

interface is already navigated to the correct folder. Under Files of type, set the ESRI shape file as the

file type, then select the waterlines.shp file, and click OK.

This opens the Import dialog box. There are several sections in this dialog. Starting with the table in

the middle, for this import, you there is a single Input Layer called "waterlines," and this is the single

feature class that is in that .shp file.

The second column is the Drawing Layer that this will be imported to. By default, AutoCAD Map

assigns the same name to the layer as the feature class in the incoming file. You can either select an

existing layer in the drawing for this, or create a new layer at this time.

Object Class refers to any object classes that may already be defined in your map, currently you

there are no object classes defined, so the column reads "none." In the Input Coordinate System

column, you can see that the California state planes coordinate system, abbreviated CA-I, is being

used for the incoming file. This has been set automatically for you as part of the import routine.

AutoCAD Map gets this information from a .prj file that is associated with the .shp file.

At the top of this dialog, you can see that the current drawing does not have any kind of coordinate

system assigned to it at all. So, in this case, there won't be any coordinate conversion, and this

geometry will simply be brought in using the input coordinates.

Data refers to any data tables or link tables that have been attached to the shape file. Currently, there

are no data tables or link tables here, so this column reads "none."

Finally, there is Points. This column allows the user to select an AutoCAD block within the drawing

you are importing your shape file into and associate that block to the shape file information as a Point

within the drawing.

For this import, leave the rest of the import properties as the default settings. This way, AutoCAD Map

will simply bring in the waterline geometry. Click OK, and AutoCAD Map goes through the import

process.

Once the import is complete, zoom extents and you can see the geometry that was brought in. Zoom

in to look at a few of these imported objects more closely. Select a

line segment, right-click and choose Properties. You can see that this selected object is a polyline

segment, or standard AutoCAD object.