Make-ready drafting tool: roads, addresses, and parcels to AutoCAD in seconds
Draw a box over your pole route or project area and export a DXF with road edges, right-of-way, parcels, APNs, and addresses on named layers. Built for the make-ready workflow, not generic GIS.
3 FREE EXPORTS / MONTH · NO CREDIT CARD
The make-ready drafting problem nobody talks about
Make-ready and joint-use work needs a base map before any real drafting starts: where the road edges are, where the right-of-way falls, which parcels line the route, and what the addresses and APNs are. Getting that base is where the hours go.
The usual options are hand-tracing from a PDF or an aerial screenshot, chasing down county parcel viewers one lot at a time, or asking a GIS person who is busy with something else. None of it is drafting. It is all setup before you can draft.
How RoadDXF works for make-ready drafting
Draw a bounding box on the map
Search an address or pan to your route, then click-drag a box around it. It can be a single block or a multi-mile corridor.
Pick your layers
Turn on road edges, centerlines, right-of-way, building footprints, parcel boundaries, APNs, and situs addresses. Take what you need, leave the rest.
Export and open in AutoCAD
RoadDXF pulls the data live, builds the DXF in your browser, and downloads it in real-world scale with each feature on its own named layer.
What is in the DXF
- Road edges and centerlines as polylines, ready to trim and offset for the make-ready exhibit.
- Right-of-way lines derived from road edges with configurable offsets.
- Parcel boundaries from official county and state GIS.
- APNs as text placed on the parcel, so you can reference lots without a separate lookup.
- Situs addresses as named point features.
- Building footprints as closed polylines.
- Utility poles where OpenStreetMap has them mapped.
How it compares to what you are probably doing now
| Hand-tracing a PDF or screenshot | Screenshot-to-DXF converters | RoadDXF | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Hours per exhibit | Faster, but manual cleanup | Minutes, then light cleanup |
| Real coordinates | Only if you georeference by hand | Usually not | Projected, real-world scale |
| Parcels and APNs | Look up each lot separately | No | Included on named layers |
| Addresses | Type them in yourself | No | Situs addresses as points |
A RoadDXF export is a starting draft, not a finished drawing. Public data is not perfect, so you will still trim, connect, and tune. The win is trading hours of hand-tracing for minutes of cleanup.
Who this is built for
- Make-ready and joint-use drafters preparing pole route exhibits.
- OSP and fiber designers scoping builds and permit targets.
- Utility permit engineers who need property lines and addresses in the drawing.
- Solo drafters and small firms without a GIS department on call.
Common questions
Does it have parcel and APN coverage for my county?
About 90% of the US population is in a fully covered county, with 38 states statewide plus hundreds of individual metro counties. Check the live coverage map on the home page for your exact area before you export.
Is this a survey?
No. It is a base map to draft over. Road and parcel geometry is close but not survey-grade, and we say so plainly in the FAQ.
What CAD programs does it work with?
A standard DXF (AC1015) that opens in AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, BricsCAD, Civil 3D, DraftSight, and any DXF-compatible editor.
Try it, your first three exports are free
No credit card. See the full product at full quality first.