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How to change thick lines on dwg import?


Jack Wallington

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Hiya,

Sometimes when I import a survey or other dwg document, lines are unreadabley thick, until I move the page or resize when momentarily they are the correct size. I've attached a screenshot of the thick lines, and or the lines when the doc is being moved.

Is there something obvious I need to change to correct it so the lines are always the right size?

Thanks 

Screenshot 2025-01-03 at 12.07.49.png

Screenshot 2025-01-03 at 12.08.03.png

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37 minutes ago, Jeff Prince said:

This is typically due to AutoCAD people using polylines with a large width setting instead of using lineweights.

 

i wrote a more complete explanation of the phenomenon here:

 

 

Thanks Jeff, that all makes sense - do you know if there is an easy way to correct it? E.g. do I just select everything and change the line weight? 

 

And happy new year! I haven't progressed much with VW in the last year, but I haven't forgotten anything either... which is a win for me lol And I'm having another burst of learning now. 

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Happy new year,  good to hear things are sticking !

 

two ways to fix:

1st grab all the imported linework.  Next, set all the attributes on the attribute panel to “byclass” (there is an option to do this in the hamburger menu, “set all attributes to by class”).  Finally, manage the lineweights via the class properties.

 

alternatively, you can use the attribute panel to manage lineweights byobject.  I prefer the former method because I can change everything quickly based on classes.  I work with lots of surveys and architectural plans, so byclass is the fastest method, especially when incorporating new revisions.

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1 hour ago, Jeff Prince said:

Happy new year,  good to hear things are sticking !

 

two ways to fix:

1st grab all the imported linework.  Next, set all the attributes on the attribute panel to “byclass” (there is an option to do this in the hamburger menu, “set all attributes to by class”).  Finally, manage the lineweights via the class properties.

 

alternatively, you can use the attribute panel to manage lineweights byobject.  I prefer the former method because I can change everything quickly based on classes.  I work with lots of surveys and architectural plans, so byclass is the fastest method, especially when incorporating new revisions.

Thanks Jeff, that has worked. I've just tried running a viewport into a sheet, but then most of the lines don't carry across, only a few. Is this another quirk of importing from Autocad, that you know of? 

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@Jack Wallington I have the exact same issue with site surveys from one particular surveyor.

 

Many years ago I wrote a couple scripts that I use on those imported dwgs that quickly takes care of the issue.

 

I'll attach a file with the scripts here.

 

To use these scripts:

 

  1. Import the dwg in to a blank file.
  2. Use the Resource Manager to bring in this script palette.
  3. Right click on the script palette and choose open.  A palette will appear with 3 scripts.
  4. Double click the script Stomp Line Weight.
  5. If EVERY tree is a scaled version of the same symbol run No More Symbols. 

 

Ridiculous dwg line weights.vwx

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1 hour ago, Jack Wallington said:

Thanks Jeff, that has worked. I've just tried running a viewport into a sheet, but then most of the lines don't carry across, only a few. Is this another quirk of importing from Autocad, that you know of? 


I would have to see the file to know what’s going on, perhaps line types?

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17 hours ago, Jeff Prince said:


I would have to see the file to know what’s going on, perhaps line types?

 

Hi Jeff,

I've attached the file - the main design layers I'm working on are

14) Plan: base where I plan to start my own drawing and 15) Plan: import - this was the original import layer. 

Then I've included and example design sheet as well, showing the lines being missing. 

If you switch between these three views, you'll see the zoom issue I'm having too, hopefully. 

Thank you for any steer with this. 

Jack 

Temporary test file.vwx

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10 hours ago, Jack Wallington said:

 

Hi Jeff,

I've attached the file - the main design layers I'm working on are

14) Plan: base where I plan to start my own drawing and 15) Plan: import - this was the original import layer. 

Then I've included and example design sheet as well, showing the lines being missing. 

If you switch between these three views, you'll see the zoom issue I'm having too, hopefully. 

Thank you for any steer with this. 

Jack 

Temporary test file.vwx 11.53 MB · 1 download

 

There are too many things wrong in that file to really explain quickly.  You might want to get some training on import/export of files, setting up projects, and cleaning file up so they don't misbehave.  That being said, the reason you are not seeing geometry in the viewport on the sheet is due to the viewport settings.  You need to set them up to show what you intend.  In this case, activating "display planar objects" is needed.  I counted over 100 viewport objects in your design layers, not sure what that is all about...

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17 hours ago, Jeff Prince said:

 

There are too many things wrong in that file to really explain quickly.  You might want to get some training on import/export of files, setting up projects, and cleaning file up so they don't misbehave.  That being said, the reason you are not seeing geometry in the viewport on the sheet is due to the viewport settings.  You need to set them up to show what you intend.  In this case, activating "display planar objects" is needed.  I counted over 100 viewport objects in your design layers, not sure what that is all about...

 

OK, thanks for taking a look Jeff, I really appreciate that. In this case I'll concentrate on redrawing what I need from this file and then starting a new file using just that.

 

I have had training on imports and followed the guidance I've had from that to import autocad produced DWG files, which has always worked before. Vectorworks is very frustrating, but I'll persevere! 

 

I'm not sure what the 100 viewport objects are, all I've done so far is import the autocad file. I'll start afresh with this one as just need the base layout to start my own drawings. 

 

 

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Hmmh, I opened that file too. (Found the "Import" Layer)

 

I notice the Layer is 1:1 Scale.

But I was not able to see any exploded Line Weights like on your screenshot.

Switching line weight scaling on and off does not change anything - I just see hair lines ....

 

As I had these exploded Line Types too in the past, from a customers 2D landscape DWG.

(From the additional PDF I would think it was done in VW originally)

And it took me a while to get rid of this line thickness but unfortunately I forgot what it was, I only remember that I got rid of it at one point.

Edited by zoomer
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8 hours ago, Jeff Prince said:

If you post the dwg, I can try importing it myself.

 

I was able to import the .dwg you sent me.  I'm not sure if that file was made in AutoCAD or some other program, but there was a lot of odd stuff in it.

Regardless, if you select all the objects, change them to by class, and then use classes to control their graphics, it all works as expected.  I think the problem you experienced is due to how you set up your viewport.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

To avoid issues with AutoCAD polyline width characteristic you can try to import the DWG file using different Model space scale (this is an option in the Advanced DXF/DWG import options dialog).

In general we propose that scale so that the whole drawing could fit in the page, but you might change it according to your needs. For example drawings with huge boundaries could lead to a proposed model space scale like 1 : 10 000, which might not be a good one. Using 1 : 1 model space scale could, in some cases, also lead to issues. There are graphic elements/attributes, which are page based in Vectorworks (polyline width, dimension marker sizes etc.), which are calculated during the import and these calculations are based on the created design layer scale (i.e. chosen model space scale value). If you receive bigger than expected dimension markers or too thick polys, then you could try to re-import the DWG using another model space scale. Note, that once imported not as expected, changing the design layer scale later would not fix the issue. But if you import the graphics with an appropriate model space scale and graphics satisfies your needs, then you could change the design layer scale as you wish and align the imported graphics with the rest of your drawing.

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On 1/3/2025 at 5:44 PM, michaelk said:

@Jack Wallington I have the exact same issue with site surveys from one particular surveyor.

 

Many years ago I wrote a couple scripts that I use on those imported dwgs that quickly takes care of the issue.

 

I'll attach a file with the scripts here.

 

To use these scripts:

 

  1. Import the dwg in to a blank file.
  2. Use the Resource Manager to bring in this script palette.
  3. Right click on the script palette and choose open.  A palette will appear with 3 scripts.
  4. Double click the script Stomp Line Weight.
  5. If EVERY tree is a scaled version of the same symbol run No More Symbols. 

 

Ridiculous dwg line weights.vwx 44.21 kB · 0 downloads

Sounds useful, thanks for sharing!

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On 1/5/2025 at 6:14 PM, zoomer said:

Hmmh, I opened that file too. (Found the "Import" Layer)

 

I notice the Layer is 1:1 Scale.

But I was not able to see any exploded Line Weights like on your screenshot.

Switching line weight scaling on and off does not change anything - I just see hair lines ....

 

As I had these exploded Line Types too in the past, from a customers 2D landscape DWG.

(From the additional PDF I would think it was done in VW originally)

And it took me a while to get rid of this line thickness but unfortunately I forgot what it was, I only remember that I got rid of it at one point.

Haven't read the whole thread in detail, but my thought was it could be a layer scaling thing. Sometimes when we've seen this, it is resolved by editing the layer scale (sometimes as well as the line weight). Architects generally work at 1:1 because that's how their software does things, but in vwx we find it better to work at whatever scale the majority of our outputs will be in sheet layer/viewport view, in order that line weights look the same in the output as what we are working with on screen in 'model space'.

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