Nina Ivanova

Hello @Stu Wilson, I am sorry to read that you have had so many troubles with DWG import... I downloaded the zip - it actually contains a big project with lots of referenced DWG files. What is your workflow to import the project files? Do you use our Import Single DWG menu and bind all the references inside a single document or do you use the approach with Vectorworks referencing (Import DXF/DWG or DWF menu command, References group options)? Do you import using the default import options? What Vectorworks version do you use and are you on a Win machine or on a Mac? I tried different approaches, but did not see a crash (VW2021 SP2, Win). Saw some issues, but they might be due to the differences in the way we present some of the objects or assigning some of them to classes with different visibility compared to DWG (this could happen and might be reasonable depending on the complexity of the original project). One of the things I saw, is that one of the DWG blocks has a line inside its definition from (0,0) to the rest of the graphics far away in the space, which is set to an invisible layer - the line extents are however used to calculate the proposed layer scale and switching to the Design layer in Vectorworks shows the real graphics as a point and you have to zoom there to see it. This is something, which comes from the original project, but you could control it choosing a better layer scale from the Model space scale options in the Advanced options dialog. If you want you might write directly to me. Thank you for reporting, Nina

Hello Magi, From what I see on the image and understand from the description, this is actually a different issue compared to the problems, described above. Yes, there are limitations set inside the third party library, which we use to create the DWG and DWF files. We pass the Vectorworks sheet sizes and what is done inside this library is to find the best matching sheet sizes and use them. We are currently working on a fix for an issue with the by-default set sizes when exporting from the Model space or as simplified graphics in the Model space (which is more related to the problems above) and might try to force the third party library to somehow accept our custom defined sizes. Thanks for reporting, Nina

@Ivaylo Stanchev, Would you, please, look at the previous post and work with the customer? Thanks!

And corresponding VW2020 version of the documents. BLK 27 - Level 1 v2020.vwx BLK 27 - Level 2 v2020.vwx BLK 27 - Level 3 v2020.vwx

Sure, @Matt Hagen, here they are. Best, Nina BLK 27 - Level 1.vwx BLK 27 - Level 2.vwx BLK 27 - Level 3.vwx

Hello Matt, We were able to see why the last char from the text is imported not as expected - the formatting is at the end of the DWG text, but it is actually not used for any of the text chars. The formatting has been wrongly added there - the DWG itself has not been originally created inside AutoCAD and actually such formatting cannot be added from inside there. AutoCAD however checks the case properly and shows the text correctly, while we have not expected such a case - right now, due to a failure to find a char, to which to apply it, we just apply it to the last char. An engineer worked on this issue and proposed a fix, which will be included in a future Vectorworks release/service pack. Until then, please use the attached document, which we created for you. Thank you for finding this problem and reporting it! Best regards, Nina BLK 27 - Ground Floor v2020.vwx BLK 27 - Ground Floor.vwx

Would you, please, send the DWG file directly to me? I will try to find the reason and fix it so that you are able to import the file in VW2020.

You are lucky 🙂 This was already fixed for SP2.

Thank you for the report, @Matt Hagen This delay appears to be due to the export of a worksheet data object with lots of elements, which for some reason is not visible in the drawing. We will work to optimize the process of export. Until you have the fix, you might create a copy of the document, remove the WinDoor/VWI-Door/Window Schedule-All Layers worksheet from the Resource Manager, which is anyway not visible on the drawing (see attached image) and export to DWG. Thanks, Nina

Hello @Victor S, Exporting the attached to your post document as it is results in creation of the Slab objects only in the IFC file - because Slabs have their own IFC data already attached to them. For all of the rest custom objects which you add in the document - like the extrudes in this example - you have to set the appropriate IFC data. You might want to read http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2020/eng/index.htm#t=VW2020_Guide%2FIFC%2FIFC_format_interoperability.htm and more specifically http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2020/eng/index.htm#t=VW2020_Guide%2FIFC%2FAssigning_IFC_data_to_objects.htm Hope this helps, Nina

@michael john williams, this is what the regular AutoCAD 2020 gives to me when I try to open the DWG there: I do not know what AutoCAD version is using the surveyor, but there are some custom objects in the DWG. That is why we show the dialog in the beginning of the import too. For this exact DWG I did not see any graphics differences whatever option I chose from the above dialog - to not show proxy graphics, to show it or to show bounding boxes. Imported in Vectorworks graphics is identical to the graphics inside AutoCAD too.

Thanks 🙂

In this case you could just ignore the message. We use some data to recognize whether the DWG is saved by a Civil 3D, but filtering might need some tuning. Can we, please, have the DWG file to check why we show the message?

There is no DWG import fault - we just want to inform you, that DWG files, directly saved by Civil 3D, may contain pure Civil 3D objects, like our plugin objects, which a regular DWG reader might not be able to present properly - i.e. we will receive as info only the object bounding boxes and will create them instead of the real graphics. This will be a correct import, but may not be what you expect to see. From inside the Civil 3D there is a possibility to export the drawing as DWG - and when this command is used instead of the direct save as, complex Civil 3D objects will be saved with their full graphics and we will import it. Of course, if there are no such objects, import will be absolutely identical in both cases.

Please, check your import options - you might have chosen to import the DWG as a reference.