Big Zipped DWG files

[RobinP]

I have received a batch of DWG files that need to be converted. Folders for each drawing are zipped together. Within each zipped folder is what appears to be the "master" DWG file, a text file that indicates this is an Autocad 2000 document. Also is an acad.fmp file, a "Block" folder with another dwg file within, "elevation" with 2 dwgs and a PlotCfgs with 4 items in it. But when asked to translate,the DWG files lock up Vectorworks -- when maybe 5% of the job is completed. How do I get into these files later to use them.

RobinP

Mac G5 dual processor running 10.4.10; Vectorworks 12.5.2

[Guest]

It sounds like patience is in order. Having that many files to convert, especially if they have xref's, is going to take a while.

Make sure everything is unzipped before converting though.

[RobinP]

The DWG is about 900K. In the last hour the little completion bar has not moved off about 5%. Forced Quit says Vectorworks is not responding. It sure looks stuck to me.

[Guest]

So is it a folder you are converting, or a single file?

The original post suggests you are converting a batch of files existing in a folder. But this last one leads me to think it's just a single file import.

[RobinP]

The zipped files each seem to refer to a single AutoCad drawing. Within that unzipped folder is a single dwg drawing plus several (secondary?) folders. 2 or 3 of these (secondary? folders have dwg files within. I have now been able to open that main dwg's with Illustrator - though not to scale. As that main dwg file slowly opens in Illustrator, the program calls for various other files that turn out to be some of those other dwg's in the (secondary?) folders. I really need to get these drawings to their accurate scale -- any help you can give will be much appreciated. It is frustrating to think that Illustrator seems to handle these CAD docs at least somewhat better than Vectorworks.

[Guest]

The other files are being called out because the primary file has xref's pointing to those files.

VectorWorks is going to import the information a little different than Illustrator. You mention it's slow to import into Illustrator, too.

I would let the import run and see what happens.

Likewise, you can send the batch of files over and I can take a look at them.