Streamlining Indoor Mapping: Direct CAD to GIS Conversion in the Browser
- Steve Bowley
- 58 minutes ago
- 5 min read
ArcGIS Indoors has seen rapid evolution over the past five years, expanding from an Enterprise GIS-based product to a full ArcGIS Online SaaS, with support for indoor routing, oriented imagery and video, space planning, asset management, mobile workflows, and Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS). The ArcGIS Indoors Information Model (AIIM) has become a de facto standard for facility management, providing the foundation for critical incident mapping data models across 9-1-1 dispatch, Space Management, Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS), and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS).
ArcGIS Indoors is a complete indoor mapping system that transforms static floor plans (Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Models (BIM)) into an interactive, location-aware digital twin of an organization's buildings and campuses.
The main challenge organizations face in leveraging the capabilities of ArcGIS Indoors is migrating legacy architectural floor plans from CAD or BIM formats into GIS.
CAD-to-GIS conversions are notoriously complex and time-consuming, requiring manual data preparation and standardization prior to migration. CAD is designed for drawing and building, whereas GIS is designed to locate and analyze things. CAD may represent rooms as a series of disconnected lines, with objects as block symbols and annotation as free-floating text. In GIS, on the other hand, rooms are closed polygons, and objects are stored as points, with each feature linked to database records that describe the feature attributes: name, use type, size, building number, organization, department, etc.
Because of this, Esri has developed a variety of methods to streamline the process of getting floor plan data into ArcGIS Indoors. This article explores these options and highlights the advantages of each approach.
Approach A: Desktop ArcGIS Pro Tools
The ArcGIS Indoors Toolbox for ArcGIS Pro includes two tools for importing CAD data into an ArcGIS Indoors schema geodatabase.
Firstly, the Import CAD to Indoor Dataset Tool allows importing individual facility levels, one at a time, into an indoor GIS dataset. The CAD file must be georeferenced prior to importing, and must have clearly defined level (floor) and unit (spaces) polygons stored on dedicated CAD layers. This tool is useful for updating geometry for specific floors when a building undergoes renovation or remodeling.
Secondly, the Import Floor Plans to Indoors Geodatabase Tool allows for batch conversion and import of multiple CAD floor plans into ArcGIS Indoors. It relies on an Excel spreadsheet to define the CAD-to-GIS layer mappings, annotation handling, Level and Unit IDs, vertical order, and relative elevation of the building floors.
Both tools rely heavily on highly standardized, consistent CAD data for the import process to go smoothly and ensure compliance with the ArcGIS Indoors data model.
Approach B: ArcGIS Data Interoperability / FME
CAD data is typically not standardized across an organization, having been developed by different architects to different standards over a number of years, or to no standard at all. Newer buildings may use common layer-naming conventions, annotations, and structures, whereas older buildings may use legacy formats or have less rigorous or older standards applied.
This is where the ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extension is particularly useful. This extension for ArcGIS Pro provides access to the Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) Workbench application from Safe Software. FME was developed in the early 1990’s specifically to convert CAD to GIS formats, and has since become the gold standard for developing Export, Transform, Load (ETL) tools for this purpose. It allows handling of messy CAD data, non-standard layer names, self-intersecting geometry, unsnapped lines and overshoots, non-feature-linked annotations, and stylized CAD block symbols, and enables the extraction of that data into standardized GIS layers. FME provides tools for filtering, renaming, reprojection, and migrating geometry and annotations into GIS features and attributes. For quality control, it also supports attribute validation and geometry repair, attribute extraction from filenames, parsing multi-line text annotations, accessing CAD file properties, and reading AutoCAD extended data (XDATA) lists to extract embedded attributes of CAD features.
FME exposes more properties of the CAD data than simply opening the CAD file in ArcGIS Pro. It can also support data enrichment by embedding external data, such as space-use types and classification codes, during the conversion process. The visual design environment of the FME workbench provides transparency of the migration process, as individual data features can be traced at each step of the process.
Error logging, validation, and quality control reporting can be incorporated in the ETL workflow, providing feedback customized to your data, as opposed to the dreaded “ERROR 999999: Something unexpected caused the tool to fail. Contact Esri Technical Support to Report a Bug”
FME ETL tools can be taken a step further by embedding them in geoprocessing tools within ArcGIS Pro and using Python to automate processing CAD files to update Enterprise GIS databases or Esri feature services. Windows Scheduled Tasks can be configured to run these geoprocessing tools nightly or on demand, keeping your Indoor GIS in sync with your CAD floor plans.
Approach C: Direct online updates to your Indoor GIS via the Esri Floor Plan Editor
Requires ArcGIS Indoors Spaces extension
The Floor Plan Editor is a web-based app designed to let users to maintain their floor plans entirely online. First released by Esri in November 2023 (alongside ArcGIS Enterprise 11.2), it comes included with the ArcGIS Indoors Spaces add-on.
In June 2025, the ability to import CAD files directly into the Floor Plan Editor was added (with the release of ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 and ArcGIS Online updates)
Users can drag and drop a DWG floor plan into the web browser, which then uploads and displays a preview of the CAD file. Plans without georeferencing information (*.wld/wld3 or *.prj files) can be georeferenced directly in the web app.
The next step is to define which CAD layers map to the Indoor GIS features. Users fill in identifiers such as Level ID, Level Name, Vertical Order, and Relative Height. Once completed, the data is imported directly into the Indoor feature service to update the Indoor web maps.
The data can be further edited in the Floor Plan Editor by adding attributes such as space-use type, names, and room numbers. Details such as doors, walls, windows, partitions, and furniture can also be added directly in the app, allowing the Indoor GIS data to be managed completely online.
The Floor Plan Editor also supports direct import of BIM models in Autodesk Revit format. The advantage of this approach is that it loads all building levels at once from a single georeferenced model, rather than level by level.
While the majority of organizations rely on CAD and BIM data as their authoritative source for floor plan geometry, the Floor Plan Editor provides a simple, accessible way for users to update Indoor GIS data via a browser-based application, and supports scenario planning through user plans and versioning.
Recap: Esri has made it easy to get your data into ArcGIS Indoors!
Loading single building levels? 👉 Import CAD to Indoors Dataset Tool
Bulk loading multiple buildings and levels? 👉 Import Floorplans to Geodatabase Tool
Need custom automated data loading? 👉 ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extension ETL Tool
Direct Online data updates? 👉 Floor Plan Editor
As an Esri Gold Partner with the ArcGIS Indoors Specialty, having Cloudpoint in your corner can mean the difference between successfully taking your GIS indoors or being left out in the cold. Contact us today to learn more!