I am new to GIS world and been slowly teaching myself Civil 3d. I have been working with importing maps and raster dgn etc., but now I have hit a wall with the contour files being in .gdb format. Is there anyway to convert these file types to shape files for AutoCAD?
[GIS] Converting gdb files to shapefiles for AutoCAD
file-geodatabase
Best Answer
If you choose to take the QGIS route, it's as easy as opening a new project and going to Layer > Add Layer > Vector Layer... and be sure to select TYPE = Directory and SOURCE TYPE = OpenFileGDB or ESRIFileGDB
from here you can select the GDB folder and it will load into the Layers pane. Right click the layer > Export > Save Feature As... and choose 'ESRI Shapefile'.
Keep in mind, shapefiles have multiple files that need to be linked with them so you should compress all exported files to the path you chose into a .zip. After that, you should be able to do pretty much anything with it, including bringing it into AutoCAD
-Sven