Computer-aided design (CAD) software is used by design professionals to design and document real-world objects. Organizations involved in engineering, architecture, surveying, and construction industries use CAD drawings to depict various planning, construction details, and as-built representations of real-world assets. AutoCAD and MicroStation are two widely used general-purpose types of CAD software, and data from these products and other applications that use the DGN, DWG, and DXF file formats is supported by ArcGIS Pro.
Workflows
To use CAD data in ArcGIS Pro, the data must have a defined coordinate location. Once the data is properly georeferenced, you can add CAD data directly as feature layers in ArcGIS Pro. You can use the CAD feature layer in many geoprocessing tools and automated workflows for analysis and data creation.
If you need to edit CAD-sourced data or share the content with a web map or web scene, you can convert the CAD data to a feature class using geoprocessing tools. If the conversion to feature class results in multipatch features and you want to work with these features on the web, it's recommended that you use the 3D object scene layer to improve performance in web scenes.
Data preparation, quality control, and the ability to analyze and share CAD data for visualization on the web are important things to consider when working with this type of data in ArcGIS.
Required software
You need ArcGIS Pro to work with CAD data.
Explore the following resources to learn more about bringing CAD data into ArcGIS.
ArcGIS help documentation
Reference material for ArcGIS products:
ArcGIS blogs, articles, stories and white papers
Supplemental guidance about concepts, software functionality, and workflows:
Videos
Esri-produced videos that clarify and demonstrate concepts, software functionality, and workflows:
Esri community
See what the Esri community is saying about CAD data.
- Ask the 3D community questions.