/
Cleaning Up .DWG Files in AutoCAD For Importing Into EDX® SignalPro® Projects

Cleaning Up .DWG Files in AutoCAD For Importing Into EDX® SignalPro® Projects

Document #: 07-SP13.0.26-08R0
© 2025, EDX Wireless, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Introduction

This document contains a brief introduction to the different functions of the AutoCAD selection tool and how to access them. The rest of this document provides detailed instructions on using AutoCAD to prepare .dwg files created with any other drawing tool for seamless integration into SignalPro wireless network studies.

AutoCAD Selection Tool

The AutoCAD selection tool looks and behaves differently according to how you use it. The following sections provide the details.

Full (Blue) Selection Tools

To make a selection with AutoCAD’s “full” selection tools, click and release (polygon) or click and hold (lasso) the left mouse button and begin your selection by moving the selection tool to the right. The tool’s blue, “full” selection field must fully surround any element or group of elements to select it.

Blue polygon procedure

  1. Position the cursor to the left of the drawing element(s) that you want to select.

  2. Click and release the left mouse button.

  3. Begin your selection by moving the tool to the right to create a selection area in the form of a blue polygon, similar to the following:

    Blue parallelogram.png
    Blue Polygon Selection Tool

  4. The blue polygon must fully enclose any line or shape that you want to select. The blue polygon does NOT select partially enclosed drawing elements.

  5. Click the left mouse button to complete the selection.

Blue lasso procedure

  1. Position the cursor to the left of the drawing element(s) you want to select.

  2. Click and hold the left mouse button.

  3. Begin your selection by dragging (moving while holding down the left mouse button) the selection tool to the right to create a selection area in the form of a blue, free-form “lasso,” similar to the following:

    Blue lasso.png
    Blue Lasso Selection Tool

Note: At some point when forming the “lasso,” you need to move the cursor to the left; but you
must begin the process by moving the cursor to the right.

  1. Just as with the blue polygon, the blue lasso must fully enclose any line or shape that you want to select. The blue lasso does not select partially enclosed drawing elements.

  2. Release the left mouse button to complete the selection.

Partial (Green) Selection Tools

To make a selection with AutoCAD’s “partial” selection tools, click and release (polygon) or click and hold (lasso) the left mouse button and begin your selection by moving the selection tool to the left. The tool’s green, “partial” selection field needs to only touch any part of any element or group of elements to select it.

Green polygon procedure

  1. Position the cursor to the right of the drawing element(s) you want to select.

  2. Click and release the left mouse button.

  3. Move the selection tool to the left to create a selection area in the form of a green polygon, similar to the following:

    Green parallelogram.png
    Green Polygon Selection Tool

  4. The green polygon selection tool only needs to touch any line or shape to select it.

  5. Click the left mouse button to complete the selection.

Green lasso procedure

  1. Position the cursor to the right of the drawing element(s) that you want to select.

  2. Click and hold the left mouse button.

  3. Drag (move while holding down the left mouse button) the selection tool to the left to create a selection area in the form of a green, free-form “lasso,” similar to the following:

    Green lasso.png
    Green Lasso Selection Tool

Note: At some point when forming the “lasso,” you need to move the cursor to the right; but you
must begin the process by moving the cursor to the left.

  1. Just as with the green polygon selection tool, the green lasso selection tool only needs to touch any line or shape to select it.

  2. Release the left mouse button to complete the selection.

Clean-up Process

The process of cleaning up a .dwg file to prepare it for inclusion in a SignalPro project involves the following procedures:

  • Import the .dwg file.

  • Ungroup elements.

  • Remove duplicated or overlapping entities.

  • Remove unused items.

  • Freeze irrelevant layers.

  • Remove miscellaneous irrelevant items.

The following sections describe these procedures in detail.

Import the .dwg File

To import a .dwg file into AutoCAD:

  1. Open AutoCAD and access the Select File dialog, similar to the following:

    Select File.png
    Select File Dialog

  2. Select the file in question and click Open.

  3. Choose your next action from the following table:

IF

THEN

IF

THEN

the file was created in AutoCAD,

go to the step 4.

the file was created in an application other than AutoCAD,

  • the Open - Foreign DWG File dialog displays, similar to the following:

    Open Foreign DWG File.png
    Open - Foreign DWG File Dialog

Note: If you're going to repeat this process
with other, non-AutoCAD drawings,
click Always open DWG files
regardless of origin.

  • Click Continue opening DWG file to display the Proxy Information dialog, similar to the following:

    Proxy Information.png
    Proxy Information Dialog

  • Click OK and go to step 4.

  1. AutoCAD displays the imported .dwg file, similar to the following:

    Imported file.png
    Imported .DWG File – Pre-cleanup

Note: Non-AutoCAD drawings include the following disclaimer beneath the drawing:

NonAutoCAD message.png
Non-AutoCAD Disclaimer

  1. To begin any of the procedures in the clean-up process, you must select the entire drawing using the desired selection tool, similar to the following:

Select entire DWG w Command Line.png
Entire Drawing Selected

Ungroup Elements

If the .dwg file contains grouped elements that you need to edit individually, then enable editing with the Explode command as follows:

Steps

  1. Select the entire drawing.

  2. In the command line, type Explode and press the Enter key,

  3. AutoCAD may respond with messages, similar to the following:

    ACAD messages1x3.png
    Unexploded Items

  4. If AutoCAD was unable to explode all groupings in the drawing, return to Step 2.
    Note: You may need to repeat the EXPLODE command several times.

Remove Duplicated or Overlapping Entities

If the .dwg file contains duplicate or overlapping entities, which can result from the importing process when switching to AutoCAD, then eliminate them with the Overkill command as follows:

Steps

  1. Select the entire drawing.

  2. In the command line, type Overkill and press Return to display the Delete Duplicate Objects dialog, similar to the following:

    Delete Duplicate ObjectsX2.png
    Delete Duplicate Objects Dialog

  3. Click OK.

  4. Return to Step 2 and repeat until AutoCAD displays the following message:

    Overkill responseX2-ed.png
    Zero Duplicates and Overlaps

Remove Unused Items

If the .dwg file includes unused items irrelevant to SignalPro such as

  • Items layers

  • Block definitions

  • Dimension styles

  • Linetypes

  • Text styles

  • Multileader styles

  • Registered application (RegApps) entries

  • Plot styles

then remove them with the Purge command as follows:

Steps

  1. Select the entire drawing.

  2. In the command line, type Purge and press Return to display the Purge dialog, similar to the following:

    Purge.png
    Purge Dialog

  3. Select Purge All to display the Purge - Confirm Purge pop-up dialog, similar to the following:

    Purge - Confirm Purge.png
    Purge - Confirm Purge Pop-up

  4. Ensure all items are checked.

  5. Select Purge all checked items.

  6. Return to Step 4 and repeat the process.

  7. In the Purge dialog, click Close.

Freeze Irrelevant Layers

If the .dwg file has layers containing information irrelevant to SignalPro such as text, remove these layers from display and active memory as follows:

Steps

  1. Select the entire drawing.

  2. Access AutoCAD’s Layer Properties Manager through the Layer Properties menu tab, to display the Current layer dialog, similar to the following:

    Current Layer.png
    Current Layer Dialog

  3. Use the Search for layer field in the upper-right corner of the dialog to locate specific layers. For example, enter *text* to locate any layers whose titles contain the word text, similar to the following:

    Current Layer - Text.png
    Current Layer Dialog: Search Field - Text

  4. When you have located the layers you want to exclude from SignalPro, select the Frozen/Thawed (blue snowflake/yellow sun) icon for each of those layers to freeze them, which make the layers invisible and removes them from active memory, similar to the following:

    Current layer - Frozen Layers-ed.png
    Current Layer Dialog: Frozen Layers

Remove Miscellaneous Irrelevant Items

If the .dwg file contains miscellaneous items irrelevant to SignalPro, use the selection tool to delete them as follows:

Steps

  1. Identify and select them, similar to the following:

    Items to Remove1.png
    Select Miscellaneous Items to Delete

  2. Clean up the drawing by deleting the items, similar to the following:

    Items Removed.png
    Miscellaneous Items Deleted

Cleaning the File for Inclusion in a SignalPro Project

When you have removed the items unnecessary for SignalPro from the .dwg file, continue preparing it for inclusion into a SignalPro project by cleaning it, as follows:

Save the File to PDF

  1. In AutoCAD, select Home in the upper-left corner of the screen to display the default, AutoCAD Home tab, similar to the following:

    AutoCAD Home Screen-Home Tab.png
    AutoCAD Home Tab

  2. In the left pane, click Open to display the Select File dialog, similar to the following:

    Select File-cleaned-Open.png
    Select File Dialog

  3. Select the file you’ve been cleaning and click Open.

IF

THEN

IF

THEN

the file was created in AutoCAD,

go to the next step.

the file was created in an application other than AutoCAD,

Note: If you selected Always open DWG files regardless of origin previously, go to the next step.

  • the Open - Foreign DWG File dialog displays, similar to the following:

    Open Foreign DWG File.png
    Open - Foreign DWG File Dialog

  • Select Continue opening DWG file to display the Proxy Information dialog, similar to the following:

    Proxy Information.png
    Proxy Information Dialog

  • Click OK and go to the next step.

4. AutoCAD displays the cleaned .dwg file, similar to the following:

Cleaned DWG for SP.png

  1. From the tabs at the top of the screen, select Output > Export > PDF, similar to the following:

    Output-PDFx3.png
    Output Tab: PDF Menu Selection

  2. In the Save As PDF dialog, File name field, type a descriptive name for your file, similar to the following:

    Save As PDF.png
    Save As PDF Dialog

  3. Click Save.

  4. On the AutoCAD Home screen, select Start and click New to create a new AutoCAD file, similar to the following:

    AutoCAD Start-New-ed.png
    AutoCAD New Option

  5. From the tabs at the top of the AutoCAD home screen:

    1. Select Insert to display the Insert tab options, similar to the following:

      Insert Tab-ed.png
      AutoCAD Insert Tab

    2. In the Import section, select PDF Import to display the Select PDF File dialog, similar to the following:

      Select PDF File.png
      Select PDF File Dialog

  6. Select the PDF that you just made of the .dwg file and click Open to display the Import PDF dialog, similar to the following:

    Import PDF.png
    Import PDF Dialog

  7. Click OK to display the rendered file, similar to the following:

    Rendered File-ed.png
    Rendered File

  8. From the AutoCAD File tab, choose Save As to display the Save Drawing As dialog, similar to the following:

    Save Drawing As.png
    Save Drawing As Dialog

  9. Before leaving the AutoCAD Home page, ensure that you close the cleaned-up file that you’ve created by clicking its associated close button (x), similar to the following:
    Note: If you skip this step, SignalPro refuses to upload the file.

    AutoCAD Home Screen - delete file-close button.png

Upload the PDF File to SignalPro

To upload the cleaned-up .dwg file to a SignalPro project, use the following procedure:

  1. Open SignalPro and start a new project or, if there is an existing project where you want to use the newly cleaned .dwg file, open the appropriate project.

  2. In the SignalPro toolbar, access the Building Editor, similar to the following:

    SP Building Editor.png
    SignalPro Building Editor Tool

  3. Select the Building Editor tool to display the Building Editor dialog, similar to the following:

    Building Editor.png
    Building Editor Dialog

  4. In the File menu, select Import From DWG > Create New Project to display the AutoCAD DWG files to import Input Fields, similar to the following:

    AutoCAD DWG files to import.png
    AutoCAD DWG file to import Input Fields

  5. Click Browse associated with Source File and browse to the location of the .dwg file that you cleaned and saved as a PDF file, similar to the following:

    Open DWG-DFX File-ed.png
    Open DWG/DFX File Dialog

  6. Select the cleaned-up .dwg file that you created and click Open to display the populated AutoCAD DWG files to import input fields.

  7. In the Open DWG/DFX File dialog, click Open to display the DWG Importer dialog, showing the file you created in the Source File field, similar to the following:

    DWG Importer-ed.png
    DWG Importer Dialog

  8. Select Convert to EDX Format to display the Project Settings dialog, similar to the following:

    Project Settings-ed.png
    Project Settings Dialog

  9. Click OK to display the MDL File Conversion pop-up, similar to the following:

    MDL File Conversion.png
    MDL File Conversion Pop-up

  10. Click OK to see your .dwg file imported into your SignalPro project as an .mdl file, similar to the following:

    BldgEd w cleaned DWG-ed .png
    Building Editor Window w/Imported MDL File

  11. In the Menu Bar, select File > Save, similar to the following:

    File-Save.png
    Building Editor, File/Save

  12. Locate the .mdl file that you just saved, similar to the following:

    Documents-ed.png
    Original .mdl File Location

  13. EDX recommends that you create a new folder and store the .mdl files there, similar to the following:

    building-ed.png
    Dedicated .mdl File Location

  14. Load your project in SignalPro and link your new .mdl file to the project as follows:

    1. In the Menu Bar, navigate to Databases > Buildings/Floorplans > Building/Floor Plan Database.

    2. In Database file format, choose EDX MDL DAS Design Format, similar to the following:

      Building-Floor Plan Database.png
      Building/Floor Plan Database Dialog

    3. Select Browse associated with Building/Floor Plan Database Directory to display the Browse for Folder selection window.

    4. Scroll to the project and folder that you just created, similar to the following:

      Browse For Folder.png
      Browse For Folder Folder Browser

    5. Select the folder to populate the Building/Floor Plan Database Directory field, similar to the following:

      Bldg-Floor Plan DB Dir-edX3.png
      Building/Floor Plan Database Directory Field

    6. In the Browse for Folder folder browser, click OK.