Keeping polygon from becoming polyline when converting polygon feature class to .dwg using ArcMap

Question

Is it possible to convert a polygon feature class from a geodatabase to a CAD .dwg while keep the features as a polygon in AutoCAD?

Currently the polygons appear only as polylines.

I am currently using ArcMap 10.2 and AutoCAD Map 3D 2010.

The Conversion Tool - Export to CAD appears to produce the necessary point, polyline and polygon data in the ArcMap Table of Contents after the tool has run, but only the polyline appears when I try to open the .dwg file into AutoCAD Map 3D.

I have attempted to convert the polygon to a variety of CAD types including DWG_R2010 and DWG_2007. The DXF and DGN files do not appear to be recognized by AutoCAD when converted.

It has been several years since I have touched AutoCAD.

Answer 1

No, I do not think this is possible.

I have very little knowledge of AutoCAD, but from my limited understanding this is why I think that is the case.

The way ArcMap and AutoCAD handle geometries is very different. ArcMap effectively has 3 geometries (ignoring the 3D stuff etc).These are Point, Line (Polyline) and Polygon. AutoCAD handles these geometries differently and contains Points and Polylines - no Polygons. Polygons are represented as a closed Polyline, with a "Hatch".

When converting from AutoCAD formats to Shapefiles the hatching in AutoCAD becomes the Polygon Shapefile and is represented as such in the ArcMap Table of Contents. When converting from SHP to AutoCAD the converted Polygon would be seen in the Table of Contents as a Polygon in the CAD representation / Group, however because AutoCAD does not recognise Polygon as a geometry, when it is opened in AutoCAD it will be represented as a closed Polyline.