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Autodesk and Esri: New release of ArcGIS for AutoCAD

By Don Kuehne

The recent announcement of partnership between Esri and Autodesk promises useful possibilities moving forward.   Starting from practical product perspective, we can take a lesson from the existing pattern of Esri’s ArcGIS for AutoCAD that provides ArcGIS interoperability with Autodesk’s AutoCAD.  It is safe to assume that the pattern of providing AEC users access to the information in their design applications is a pattern that can be repeated and enhanced.

ArcGIS for AutoCAD in its latest release continues to provide AutoCAD users access to ArcGIS Web Services, and the ability to share ArcGIS data within AutoCAD .DWG files.  The incremental update of ArcGIS for AutoCAD 370 is now available for free download .  This release includes certification for 64bit versions of AutoCAD 2015-2018.

This release marks the deprecation of ArcGIS for AutoCAD’s support for 32 bit versions of AutoCAD.  Support for 32bit versions of AutoCAD can still be accessed with the previous  ArcGIS for AutoCAD 365 version available for download  here:

Check out this video to see more specifically what is included in this release:

The previous version did function with AutoCAD 2018 versions (including AutoCAD Map 3D and Civil 3D), but you were required to install the 365 version on an older version of AutoCAD, and then load the software using NETLOAD.  This release includes the install and desktop launcher for the 64bit versions of AutoCAD 2018, and a number of fixes.

An issue with retaining attributes when adding multiple new features to a feature service has been resolved.

The server connection URL in previous versions required that “…ArcGIS/Services…” was part of the URL path string.   That requirement has been relaxed to enable you to use your desired path when configuring your web services, or accessing information from others that had different URL naming.

3D planer geometries, like contour lines, were being added from feature services at a zero elevation.  Whereas 3D linear features with varying vertex elevations were added properly.  In this release, all 3D linear features from feature services are added at their proper vertex elevation values.

An issue with date fields in ArcGIS 10.3 Servers and feature services was also resolved.

The future of ArcGIS for AutoCAD will continue on line of improved integration with ArcGIS Online/Portal.  At the same time other  CAD/BIM/AEC applications are being considered for future development using a similar integration pattern as ArcGIS for AutoCAD.

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