Convert Shapefiles (SHP) and Google Earth KML to DWG Site Plans (Free, Online)
Turn GIS shapefiles and Google Earth KML files into an AutoCAD DWG site plan for free, right in your browser, with nothing to install.
This tutorial opens a city GIS download, a zip of shapefiles, and shows everything the free converter does with it. Every shapefile in the zip opens together as one site plan: parcels, building footprints, street centerlines, curbs, 2 ft contours and street trees, each on its own layer. Click a parcel to see its attributes, with its area and perimeter worked out in the file's own units. Labels come from the attributes (addresses, street names, contour heights), and you can label by any field, such as zoning. The DWG keeps the data's own coordinate system, here the Massachusetts state plane in US survey feet, so it lines up with the survey and with other GIS data, with one layer per shapefile and the labels as text. Then a client's Google Earth KML of the site becomes a DWG too. Your files are read in your browser and never uploaded.
Convert SHP to DWG, SHP to DXF, shapefile to AutoCAD, KML to DWG, KML to DXF, KMZ to DWG, Google Earth to AutoCAD, GIS to CAD, SHP to PDF, SHP to SVG
Transcript
Intro
Here is how to turn GIS shapefiles and Google Earth KML files into an AutoCAD DWG site plan, for free, in your web browser.
Open the converter
Go to innerscene.com/tools/shp-to-dwg. There is no account and nothing to install, and your files are read right here in your browser.
Open a GIS download
City and county GIS sites hand out their data as a zip of shapefiles. Click Open an SHP File and choose the whole zip; there is no need to unpack it. Every shapefile in it opens together as one site plan: the parcels, building footprints, street centerlines, curbs, two-foot contours and street trees.
One layer per shapefile
Tools, then Layers, lists one layer for each shapefile, and one for each set of labels. Turn the contours off to see the lots clearly, and back on.
Parcel attributes
Click any shape to see its attributes. This corner lot, 40 Harbor Avenue, is vacant and zoned B-1. The panel also works out its area, 18,900 square feet or 0.43 acres, and its perimeter, all in the file's own units.
Labels from attributes
Labels come from the attributes too: parcels show their address, streets their name, and contours their height. To label the parcels by zoning, choose ZONING in the Label by list.
Download the DWG
Now click Download DWG. The drawing keeps the data's own coordinate system, here the Massachusetts state plane in US survey feet, so it lines up with the survey and with other GIS data. Each shapefile is its own layer, and the labels are text. DXF, PDF and SVG are in the Export menu.
Check it in the DWG viewer
To check it, open the DWG in our free DWG viewer, at innerscene.com/tools/dwg-viewer. Every layer is there, with the addresses, street names and contour heights.
Google Earth KML to DWG
Clients often send the site as a Google Earth KML instead. Open innerscene.com/tools/kml-to-dwg and choose the file. The site boundary, the setback line and the notes keep their names and colours, and Download DWG makes them a drawing too. KMZ files open the same way.
Summary
That is the free shapefile and KML to DWG converter at innerscene.com. Links are in the description.
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