Using ArcCatalog

CAD drawings
You can access CAD drawings directly in ArcCatalog. CAD
drawings typically have many layers, each of which represents a
different type of geographic feature. For example, the drawing
might contain different line layers for streets, water mains, and
parcel boundaries. Other layers in the drawing may represent
geographic features with points or polygons or contain annotation
for labeling the features.
For each CAD drawing on disk, there is both a CAD dataset item
and a CAD drawing item in the Catalog tree. The CAD dataset
contains point, line, polygon, annotation, and multipatch feature
classes. The line feature class, for example, represents all line
features in all layers in the drawing and their attributes. Additional
feature attributes may be stored in separate tables.
CAD feature classes are drawn in Geography view using the same
default symbology used by ArcCatalog when drawing shapefiles
and coverages. If you create a layer file from a CAD feature class,
you can change the symbology used to draw its features, join
attributes stored in separate tables to them, and select which
features to display according to their attribute values. You can
only analyze and edit features in ArcMap when the layer references
a CAD feature class.
In the Catalog tree you’ll also find a CAD drawing item, which
represents all features in all layers of the drawing. In Geography
view, the CAD drawing item’s features appear with the symbology
defined in the drawing itself. When a layer is created from the
CAD drawing item, you can choose which of the drawing’s layers
it represents. For example, you might want to see only the streets,
traffic lights, and street names on your map.
For a list of the CAD formats supported by ArcCatalog, see the
online Help topic ‘CAD drawings and datasets’.
The CAD dataset represents a drawing’s features with individual feature classes.
A CAD feature class contains all points, lines, polygons, annotation, or multipatch features in the
drawing.
Tables can contain additional feature attributes.
With a layer file created from a CAD drawing, as opposed to a CAD feature class, you can
choose which features you want to draw.
The CAD drawing lets you draw all features using the symbology stored in the drawing.
WHAT’S IN THE CATALOG? 61