Converting a CAD file to a shape file

Question

Hey folks: Thanks for the assist on my previous question.... I was able to complete my project This time I have a CAD file created with Autodesk that I need to convert to a shape file.

Couple of questons:

1. An open source application (can't afford ESRI) that can convert the CAD file to a shape file?

2. Is that a better file format I can use other than the shape file (shp) format?

Any suggestions would be greatly appricated

Regards Chris

Answer 1

Check out what ODA has:

http://www.opendesign.com/

Answer 2

You should use OGR

http://www.gdal.org/ogr/

It is the main program for converting between geographic formats. It is written in C++ but there are also python bindings. It is compiled and runs on almost every major OS.

Answer 3

I would also suggest to use OGR but in only works with dwg/dxf version 2000 or prior; you could use Teigha (http://www.opendesign.com/) to convert the files to 2000 version and then you can use OGR.

I've done tons of conversions from dwg to shp what I usualy do is convert the dwg to a dwg version 2000 using Teigha, then convert that dwg-200 to a shape file; once a shapefile you'll see that this file contains all the layer in order to separate each layer into a different shape file I use this command

ogr2ogr new_map_from_layer_X.shp -where "LAYER = 'X'" shape_converted_from_DWG_lines.shp