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I am an App developer with no experience with AutoCAD at all, and for my current project I need to convert DWG files into Spatial Data - ESRI Shapefile / GeoJSON, etc. Given that DWG is a proprietary format owned by Autodesk, the Autodesk Forge API becomes my only option to interpret such file. I have been evaluating the Model Derivative API for a week now, and what I found is that it won't work for my purposes. It has only 3 output formats (f2d, f3d, rvt) for DWG files and none of them fits my purpose.

For this reason, I started to look at others API's in the platform and ended up finding the Design Automation API which might be helpful, however it lacks documentation.

One of the examples in the API is the PlotToPdf activity that exports a DWG into a PDF. I wonder if there is a way to export other formats other than PDF.

I tried to find the possible "commands" in the interface by listing all the activities, workItems and AppPackages but none of these end-points returned me any useful information.

So here are my questions?

  1. How can I can convert a DWG into a non Autodesk format? Being more specifically, the output must be an open format that I can interpret without using proprietary tools.

  2. If the answer for the first question is Autodesk Forge API, which one should I use?

  3. In case I should be using Design Automation API for that, where can I find complementary documentation once the one provided is lacking details?

Raoni
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3 Answers3

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I would say that Design Automation API is the best option if you don't have (or don't want) AutoCAD running (or any other DWG compatible desktop app).

To be complete: Design Automation includes an instance of AutoCAD running on the cloud, where you can upload a .DWG with a sequence of commands (script) and a .NET custom app to execute more advanced routines. Then download the results. By default, neither AutoCAD nor Design Automation can export to GIS formats (like those you mentioned), only some verticals, like Civil 3D or Map 3D, but these are not available on Design Automation. As you mentioned, Model Derivative API (via REST calls) don't have what you need, it's focused on metadata, not the specifications of the geometry.

Design Automation API supports the same commands AutoCAD Console does. For DXF creation, you can use DXFOUT command, your script would be something like (not tested):

FILEDIA
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DXFOUT
outputfilename.dxf
QUIT

As per comment, it's a huge effort to just convert to .DXF. I'm not familiar with other libraries do perform the same task.

Now I'm not an expert on GIS data formats, but you may consider move from .DWG to .DXF then an approach like described here.

Community
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Augusto Goncalves
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  • Is there a list of commands accepted by the Design Automation API? For instance, what would be the command to convert DWG to DXF? I would only use the API to convert DWG to DXF, which means a huge waste of resources considering the monthly cost of the API and the time to develop and maintain the interface. That said, is there any other Autodesk licensed solution to programmatically convert it? Valeu! :) – Raoni Feb 14 '17 at 02:37
  • Just adding that the conversion from DXF (or any other vectorial open format) to GIS formats is not a problem, I'm using GDAL library on NodeJS and it's working fine. – Raoni Feb 14 '17 at 02:46
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I don't quite understand this point that you are making in the comments:

I would only use the API to convert DWG to DXF, which means a huge waste of resources considering the monthly cost of the API and the time to develop and maintain the interface.

Can you clarify? Are you saying that transaction cost for Design Automation is too high? Or are you saying that development cost associated with deploying the script that Augusto gave you is too high?

Thanks

Albert Szilvasy
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  • What I mean is that the development cost ($) on top of the monthly subscription cost ($) is too high to a task that simply changes the file format. Bear in mind that there is no transformation or some sort of processing involved. The input (DWG) and the output (DXF) are virtually the same apart from the file format. – Raoni Feb 15 '17 at 05:43
  • (cont.) Therefore, the API is not cost effective for what I need. My conclusion is purchasing an AutoCAD license and use its console to transform the DWG file to DXF it would produce the same outcome, at the expense of having to provide the environment as well. Even though, I believe it's still worth it. I hope that this comment clarifies what I meant by "waste of resources". – Raoni Feb 15 '17 at 05:44
  • Yep. I got it. Thank you. – Albert Szilvasy Feb 15 '17 at 23:35
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Right now the derivativeApi is the way to go for this: You can convert any input format from this list (https://developer.autodesk.com/en/docs/model-derivative/v2/overview/supported-translations/) to the "intermediate format" svf and the convert the svf file to obj for example. This will also create a material file which can be downloaded seperately. I am evaluation the forge api right now and can produce obj from dwg files right now.

ChrisK
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