[gdal-dev] writing DWG/DXF

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 6:47 AM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Andreas Neumann wrote:
>>
>> yes - it is a read/write driver.
>
> I have meanwhile checked out and tried it successfully. My use case is
> taking shape files with geodata (road networks, railway, land use etc) and
> converting them to DXF for a client of mine. I created a set of DXF files
> from my shapes and checked them in QCAD.
>
> Sadly I only get geometries, no extra attributes ("DXF layer does not
> support arbitrary field creation."). I can work around this by creating one
> shape file for every type of feature, but I'll never get something like
> street names that way.

Frederik,

It is not immediately obvious to me how to attach general purpose
attributes to DXF entities in a way that will be useful so I have not
yet attempted this.  With some guidance something could likely be
done.


>> There will be further work on this provider. If you (or someone else)
>> would have some money for improvements it would help as well.
>
> Is not being able to convert something like a street name a fundamental
> problem of DXF, or is this something that could be implemented for a client
> willing to part with some money?

I think there is ambiguity or at least several different ways
of associating what we think of as attribute data.  So something
can be done with money/time but I'm concerned it won't be
as generally useful as it could be.   It would also take some
investigation to come up with the best method.

Best regards,
-- 
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