DWG export is really "problematic", but not addressed as such

[arquitextonica]

I´m facing once again VERY big problems with the DWG export.
I insert an image as reference and instance it several times in design layers.
When I export the layer as DWG, not only will VW capriciously rename the image file (actually producing a new image with different quality) but it also generates a new and different image for each of the instances I have placed in the layer... (behaviour that is also happening when I have several layouted viewports of the same design layer)
This is plain wrong. It is illogical and cumbersome.

Would anyone provide some insight? I know DWG is not an open format and also not the native file format for VW, but it IS and will remain an industry standard for many years and we don't have a trustworthy way of providing our colleagues with information in this format...

Thanks in advance, and please forgive me if I'm sound angry... but this problem is really a pain in the CAD...

[Art V]

What kind of image are you referencing? If it is a georeferenced image then you really should try to stick with only one instance of that image and us design layers for each area if you need to draw on multiple parts of that image.

That should generate only one image when exporting a set of design layers, though windows might ad a sequence number e.g. (2), (3) instead of overwriting the image to maintain a single image.

 

It is a bit similar to symbol instances, when exporting to DWG it may create a new dwg file for each symbol instance, which is a longstanding issue that could only be fixed by opening the exported DWG file in a dwg based CAD program and then replace all instances of a block/symbol with a single "block" dwg file to get rid of it. Unless they changed it this year with a service pack which I doubt. You could do the same with the referenced image, replace them all by the same single image file.

So it depends on Vectorworks to change the way it exports to DWG to solve this.

When exporting presentation layers it will often generate an image for each presentation layer or viewport, which may be the cause of your issue if you use design layer viewports to instance the referenced image.

[zoomer]

1 hour ago, Art V said:

opening the exported DWG file in a dwg based CAD program and then replace all instances of a block/symbol with a single "block" dwg file

 

I still did not get how to replace Symbols/Blocks in that "DWG based CAD program".

I also often get multiple Duplicates of the same Block into DWG by imports.

 

Maybe I am doing wrong but I see no way that is comparable easy as in VW by just

deleting a Symbol in Resource Manager and selecting an alternative Symbol to

replace the instance with.

 

[zoomer]

And I really miss the Render Materials in DWG Exports ......

[Art V]

6 minutes ago, zoomer said:

 

I still did not get how to replace Symbols/Blocks in that "DWG based CAD program".

Select all the duplicates (i.e. the ones with a sequantial number or all instances except one)  in the Drawing Explorer, then delete them and you should get a dialog where you can select that you want to replace it with another block, then select the one you did not select for deletion to replace the extraneous instances of that block.

[arquitextonica]

1 hour ago, Art V said:

which is a longstanding issue

The DWG export is a longstanding issue and is IMHO not being properly addressed... I´m really eager to see what and if the announced improvements are in 2023.

[zoomer]

Ahm, is that a new feature/since when ?

AFAIK this was only possible for Components in the past.

I hoped it would come in V23.

 

If possible that would be absolutely great and as easy as in VW.

 

[zoomer]

5 minutes ago, arquitextonica said:

I´m really eager to see what and if the announced improvements are in 2023.

 

Have not yet looked at DWG improvements ...

But if I look at the What's New listings under DWG,

https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2023/eng/VW2023_Guide/LandingPage/New_features.htm

I do not see anything about Image imports ...

[Art V]

8 minutes ago, zoomer said:

Ahm, is that a new feature/since when ?

AFAIK this was only possible for Components in the past.

I hoped it would come in V23.

 

If possible that would be absolutely great and as easy as in VW.

 

For regular blocks this was already possible before components got introduced. For components the procedure is still as you are used to as that works a bit different from regular blocks.

[zoomer]

1 hour ago, Art V said:

For regular blocks this was already possible before components got introduced. For components the procedure is still as you are used to as that works a bit different from regular blocks.

 

 

I will try.

In the past I did not get a message to replace ....

[zoomer]

Still does not work for me.

 

Just that in V23, I get a new BLOCKREPLACE Icon.

Which should now do what I need.

 

But AFAIK this will work by selecting the Instances in the drawing,

not by Selecting Block Duplicates.

Uhm, it works for a single Instance Selection only ..... not for all instances at a time ....

[Art V]

2 hours ago, zoomer said:

Still does not work for me.

 

Just that in V23, I get a new BLOCKREPLACE Icon.

Which should now do what I need.

 

But AFAIK this will work by selecting the Instances in the drawing,

not by Selecting Block Duplicates.

Uhm, it works for a single Instance Selection only ..... not for all instances at a time ....

Sorry for the confusion, my memory failed me somewhat with the replacing of blocks.

 

If you use the Drawing Explorere and select multiple blocks to replace with a single one it does indeed not work and works only on a single instance, just tried that out myself.

 

Then I checked an add-on to see if I perhaps used that one and that turned out to be the case.

I'm using the ToolPac add-on, with that I can selecty multiple variants of a block and replace it with one single instance, or even select multiple different blocks to replact them with a single other block. In both cases it uses the substibute command from ToolPac to do that.

 

The procedure I described does work for layers and I did manage somehow to replace a few variants with a single variant instance somehow recently without using ToolPac, that may have been a lucky circumstance as I don't recall exactly what I did with that one. ToolPac is unfortunately windows only.

 

The BLOCKREPLACE already exists in V22, though it might be new on V23 on Mac/Linux.

[zoomer]

5 hours ago, arquitextonica said:

When I export the layer as DWG, not only will VW capriciously rename the image file

 

That was always a pain for me.

E.g. for render image textures.

I load image textures for all Apps from the project's Texture Folder.

If I do VW Exports in 3D it will assign all exported Materials with new

Texture Exports including name change.

 

 

AND

I tried to export a DWG and bring it back into VW

I see no improvements to DWG Export geometry quality ....

- still no render materials (VW calls it RW Textures)

- no Solids from Extrudes when containing more than one 2D element

- no Solids from Walls - when Windows cut the Wall into separate Volumes

   (e.g. when reaching from Wall's bottom to top)

- No Solids from Slabs of course

[zoomer]

1 hour ago, Art V said:

Sorry for the confusion,

 

OK, thought I really did something wrong.

(Windows only of course, but that Plugin seems to be able to do anything.... )

🙂

 

Will look deeper into BLOCKREPLACE and/or file another SR ....

 

 

Sorry for for hijacking your Thread @arquitextonica

Hope there will someone chiming in that has more Image Export experience.

Edited October 10, 2022 by zoomer

[arquitextonica]

13 hours ago, zoomer said:

Sorry for for hijacking your Thread

Was just a little "offtopic excursion" 😁
I hope VW gets a half-decent DWG exporter anytime soon... I sincerely don't know how other colleagues handle this problem. For us is a real pain...

[leecalisti]

I never knew images could be exported from AutoCAD and imported into VW. Recently, I had to place images into a drawing (viewports) independently because the symbols (blocks) didn't contain the image, but the author sent me all the images. It was only a few images, so not as much of a pain as @arquitextonica describes. Also, I had to reduce the resolution of the original user's images due to ridiculous file size. So the exercise for me made some sense.

 

I would still like to see better translation - and for me it needs to be in 3D between VW and Revit. I suppose that's another thread.