ACAD Conversion

[tripleplay]

in one of our programs (named Cocon) we generate a CAD file that is build up of several Mapinfo (application program) files.
whithin these files, there are several objects (lines and points) witch contain information ( project name, cable name, status etc.)

our problem is, that the object related information that is generated in Mapinfo and Cocon,can not visiualize these in ACAD.
the question there is; how can we visiualize this item related information?
when we save an ACAD file from Cocon (extention DXF).
If we open that DXF file in notepad (example) we can retrieve the required information. my guess here is, that if a DXF file can visiualize this information, a DWG file should have this possibility aswell.
the problem is; I don't know how.

can someone help me out?

[f700es]

uh, I don't get the question, sorry. Are you saying that when you open the CAD file in a CAD program that there is no information there? Or you don't have a CAD program to test theis exported file? Sorry for not understanding what you are after but I bet the forum can help you figure it out.

[CarlB]

When you view the information in the DXF file, how is it referred to? What is the heading? Information may be stored in CAD dictionaries or as extended data, for example, and wouldn't be visible.

[tripleplay]

my question (maybe) was written wrong (sorry for that)

but i'll give it another try.

when we generate (for instance) a tube in our program, it contains several entities as: the color of the tube, the diameter, the status of that specific tube etc.
when we convert these tubes (from mapinfo) back to a DWG / DXF formatted file, we can open this drawing in ACAD. our problem is, that our related entities are not shown anymore in ACAD when we want to see the properties of a tube.
is there a possibility to see these entities (and if so) how?


hopefully someone can help me out

[hendie]

my response would be the same as CarlB's

if the information is in the DXF file then it will be in the drawing file. You just have to find out where the info is stored. My guess is that it may be in a dictionary or possibly as Xdata.

How is the information stored in the original ?

[tripleplay]

thanks for your reply hendie;

the original file is a TAB file stored in Mapinfo (application)
we translate this into a DWG format by using FME.

but now i have another question;
if the information is supposed to be seen in a dictionary (or as Xdata) as you replied, were can this dictionary possibly be found within ACAD?

does anyone have a suggestion?
maybe we're on to something.

kind regards;

[hendie]

if it is indeed stored as Xdata (the likeliest candidate), you would need to query the object to see if it has any Xdata attached.
If you have Express tools installed, you can use the XDLIST command to list the Xdata.

can you post a portion of the DXF file that contains the data you require here on the forum. If we can see that we may be able to determine how it is stored and therefore, how to retrieve it

[hendie]

Are you using full Autocad or Autocad LT ?
if you are usign the full version, it should be possible to retrieve the info ~ if you are using LT then there may be problems

If you are using the full version, do you have Express Tools installed ?