ESRI Announces Release of ArcGIS for AutoCAD Free Download

CAD Users Can Now Leverage ArcGIS Server Capabilities from within the AutoCAD Application

Redlands, California – ESRI, announced today the availability of ArcGIS for AutoCAD, a free AutoCAD application that allows CAD users to visualize and query geographic information system (GIS) data within the CAD environment without conversion. ArcGIS for AutoCAD accesses dynamic georeferenced ArcGIS Server map services and displays them in the AutoCAD drafting environment.

"For the first time, CAD users will have a simple way to connect to GIS enterprise data," said Don Kuehne, ESRI product manager. "These users will benefit from the results of GIS analysis through georeferenced cartographic products inside AutoCAD’s editing environment for context and reference without the complexities of conversion and translation."

The map service metadata is accessible in the standard AutoCAD Properties window, and the map feature attributes can be viewed via the IDENTIFY tool. All vector, raster, and imagery formats that ArcGIS Server supports can be viewed in the CAD environment.

With ArcGIS for AutoCAD, CAD users can
• Dynamically interact with live GIS maps, displaying GIS symbology and data structures in CAD.
• Include the results of GIS analysis in their CAD designs.
• Include GIS basemaps in their CAD products.
• Access feature attributes in CAD directly from the underlying GIS databases using the IDENTIFY tool.
ArcGIS for AutoCAD requires ArcGIS Server 9.2 and AutoCAD 2007. To download ArcGIS for AutoCAD, visit www.esri.com/autocadapp for more information.

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit ESRI at www.esri.com.