AIDAN ACKERMANAssistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, SUNY College of Environmental Science and ForestrySyracuse, NY
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Exporting ArcGIS Pro Contours (and other data) to AutoCAD
To begin this tutorial, you should already have contour information loaded into ArcGIS Pro.



1. Click on the View tab at the top of the interface, and then select Catalog Pane.








2. In the Catalog Pane, make sure that you  have selected  Computer.  Expand the folders until you have  located the specific folder where the contours you wish to export are located. Below, Computer is outlined in red and the contour file (also called a feature class) is shown next to the arrow.








3. Right-click on the contour layer, and a context menu will pop up.  Select Export ->  Feature Class(es) To CAD...






4. In the Geoprocessing window that appears, there are a few steps you need to go through to prepare your work for export to CAD. See below  for a step-by-step walkthrough of the process.



5. REMOVING FEATURES

The feature class you  selected may have several  sets of contours (called features).  You may want to remove  some of these because they cover the same area, just with different vertical spacing (called intervals). For each feature you want to remove, click the red x next to the name of the feature. This does not remove it from ArcGIS - it only removes it from the export options.


6. ADDING FEATURES

You may want to add in other features that are on your map. Click the arrow next to Input Features to search for and add other data.


7. PROJECTING

Click on Environments and then on the globe icon next to  the dropdown menu under Output Coordinate System.







8. SETTING THE COORDINATE SYSTEM - 1

In the search bar next to XY Coordinate Systems Available, type in the state where your map is located*, then hit Enter to search.  After hitting enter it will seem like nothing has happened - don’t worry!



*for non-US maps, coordinate systems vary by data source and project type.

9. SETTING THE COORDINATE SYSTEM - 2

Now, expand the menu by clicking on the triangle to the right of Projected Coordinate System.  Expand State Plane, then NAD 1983 (US Feet) and click on the region of the state that applies to your project. Then click OK.

If you are going to be working in this geographic region frequently, you can click the star to the right of the name of the region to save it to Favorites. This saves you the time of searching for it in the future.


10. SETTING THE COORDINATE SYSTEM - 3

Now in the Geoprocessing pane you will see the selected coordiante system shown. Click Run.


Be patient while the process runs. It can take several minutes.






When the exporting process is complete, you will receive a confirmation.






Locate the CAD file on your computer and open it in AutoCAD /another CAD program.




11. You should see your contours in AutoCAD. Clicking on a contour should display its elevation value in the Properties panel.