Moving Excel/CAD data into ArcMap [closed]

Question

I am new to GIS.

I was wondering how to go about taking geometry data (from AutoCAD) and attribute data (from Excel) and combining them into a single layer or shapefile or feature class. The AutoCAD data represents a street network for a city (e.g NYC) and the Excel file lists various types of pavement markings associated with segments along the aforementioned streets. So, for example, it would say "Starting at A street and continuing to B avenue, there are 10 bike diamond markings on the pavement and 8 pedestrian crossing markings). I feel a bit stuck regarding the most logical approach to unite this data.

How could I approach this task?

Answer 1

After your edits: you've expanded the question to include importing into ArcMap and then doing a join on an attribute field. The first part is straightforward. Assuming ArcMap 10:

1. Import the CAD file and create a shapefile
2. Import the Excel file

Now you just have to join the two on a shared attribute.

If the line segments have a field with values that correspond to values in a column in the Excel file, you can use the Join tool to combine the two layers:

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/tables/essentials-of-joining-tables.htm

IF not, you need to structure the data for joins to work. Have the Excel file structured so that a row contains a segment ID and attribute. Can be more than one rows for a given segment ID (for instance, segment A contains 10 bike markings, stored in 1 row, and 6 pedestrian crossings stored in another). But it might be smarter to just create points for the exact location of these features, and then join the point to the linestring sources either spatially or by attribute.

Ultimately, with your expanded question, it's very broad and really requires some serious consideration about the most effective way to store the data. But taking it from CAD to GIS is definitely the right first step.