How to bring OpenStreetMap streets and buildings into AutoCAD (DWG/DXF) — what actually works

[OSM2CDR]

Every few years someone here asks how to get a real street map of a town into AutoCAD — see the 2010 threads “autocad maps” and “inserting os map download to drawings”. The answers back then were “buy a DXF” or “trace a raster”. Today OpenStreetMap covers most of the planet with vector data, so here is what actually works, from free to convenient.

1. QGIS (free). Install the QuickOSM plugin, draw your area, download highways / buildings / landuse, then Project → Import/Export → Export to DXF. You get a layer per OSM tag, but the DXF is in lat/lon or a UTM zone you must pick yourself, text labels are lost, and curves come in as dense polylines.

2. AutoCAD Map 3D / Civil 3D. MAPIMPORT reads SHP; take the SHP from Geofabrik extracts. Works well if you have Map 3D, but the extracts are whole countries and need clipping first.

3. Online converters. Full disclosure: I run one of them, osm2cdr.com (Russian UI at osm2cdr.ru). You pick an area on the map, choose DWG or DXF, and get a file with layers (roads by class, buildings, water, green, names as TEXT), already in a metric projection at 1:1 metres, so INSERT at 0,0 lands where you expect. There is a free preview.

I am posting here because this question keeps coming back in the beginners’ area, and I would honestly like to hear what a DXF made from OSM must contain for you to use it in a real job: line types? blocks for POIs? paper space with a title block? Happy to answer questions about any of the three routes.