Import CSV into ZWCAD

Watch this video to see how to Importing CSV into ZWCAD:

This technical page describes how to Import CSV into ZWCAD. The “Comma-separated values” CSV files are one of the most common types of files to store tabular data. They are plain-text ASCII files, without binary numbers or any other data type which has to be interpreted, can be easily read or written by any application and a user can look at their content using common utilities, such as Window Notepad

Coordinates in Notepad

Coordinates in Notepad

Every line in the file corresponds to a record of a data table and every text or number between two delimiter characters in a line corresponds to a field in this record. There are various characters that may be used as the delimiter character. The most common used delimiter characters are the comma, the tab, the space character or the semicolon

In addition, other common applications, such as MS Excel, also allow you to open and edit this type of file because of their tabular data format

Coordinates in Excel

Coordinates in Excel

CSV to CAD

CAD applications users often need to import these kind of point data files into their drawings, and the content of the files is usually very diverse: GPS generic data, surveying data, hydrants, signals, address points, etc.

ZWCAD, being one of popular applications in the CAD market, cannot directly translate the contents of CSV to ZWCAD, not even as Point type Entities. To perform a task such as Import CSV to ZWCAD, you will need an additional ZWCAD utility or plug-in

Import CSV into ZWCAD

Spatial Manager™ for ZWCAD includes, in addition to many other access tools, a powerful “ZWCAD CSV” data provider to import CSV files into ZWCAD. The provider allows you to access the most usual formats of CSV point files: XYZ, XY Description, Code XY, PNEZD, PENZD, UPT, etc., or to any Customized format (coordinate columns plus any other data columns)

As when importing point type features using any other data provider included in the application, you can choose between Point Entities or Block references and many other interesting drawing options through the import process

You can also perform a coordinate transformation “on the fly” when importing. The coordinate transformation is an important issue to consider in Spatial Manager™ for ZWCAD when importing from CSV files because a lot of coordinate data comes from GPS devices or similar. Thus the coordinate data is formatted using Latitude and Longitude values and the users usually need to import the data to projected coordinates into the DWG drawing

Example: ZWCAD imports CSV

This example shows how to Import a CSV file into ZWCAD. We will import a set of hydrants from two different CSV files into a drawing of a city

First, we will use a simple XYZ coordinate CSV file and ZWCAD Points. Next, we will use a Custom CSV file and ZWCAD Block References including Attributes to catch the data values