Export to CAD

A plain CAD export drops labels entirely — labels are a dynamic rendering property, and CAD has no equivalent. This tool converts them to annotation features beforehand, so the text arrives in the drawing.

• Select the layers in the Contents pane before clicking. The tool exports the current Contents-pane layer selection; there is no layer list on a dialog. Only feature layers are exported.
• Clicking the button opens a Save As dialog for the output file. The format follows the extension you choose:

• Label-to-annotation conversion happens per layer, and only where it is needed. A layer is inspected first, and is converted only if it is visible, has labelling enabled, and has at least one enabled label class. A layer with labelling switched off is exported without a conversion step.
• The annotation scale matters, and it is taken from the map. Annotation is scale-dependent — once converted, text size is fixed relative to ground units. The scale is resolved in this order: 1. The map's reference scale, if one is set. 2. The current camera scale — that is, the scale the map happens to be displayed at. 3. 1:1000, as a fallback. This is the one thing to get right before exporting. If the map has no reference scale, the text in the CAD file is sized for whatever zoom level you happened to be at when you clicked. Set the map's reference scale to the intended plot scale first, and the annotation will be sized correctly.
• Conversion work is done in a temporary file geodatabase named cad_export_temp.gdb, which is deleted afterwards. The annotation feature classes are intermediate products, not additions to your project.
• The tool reports how many annotation feature classes it created, along with a log of what happened per layer.
• The tool reports an error if there is no active map view, or if no feature layers are selected.

1. Set the map's reference scale to the scale the drawing will be plotted at. This determines how large the annotation text will be — do it before exporting, not after.
2. Confirm each layer's labelling is switched on and configured as you want it to appear. Only visible, enabled labels are converted.
3. In the Contents pane, select the feature layers to export.
4. On the KGA Toolbox tab, in the Data Creation group, open the Conversion Tool gallery and click Export to CAD.
5. In the Save As dialog, choose a folder, type a file name, and pick the extension for the CAD format you need.
6. Click Save and wait for the export to finish.
7. Read the report. It states how many annotation feature classes were created and what happened to each layer.
8. Open the file in the CAD application and confirm the text is present and correctly sized.

Requires an active KGA Toolbox license. The tool validates the license before running.