Export dwg to autocad, difficulties with texts, lines missing, symbols etc.

[Cecilia]

I use WV 12.5 (on Mac X) and export dwgs to a firm I consult for. They use autocad 2006 and 2007 (on PC) . I have learned to adapt to all their layers (classes) colors, thicknesses etc and export dwg files with the master "modelspace" I have drawn as well as sheetlayers with viewports with annotations. We are happy thusfar.

However, we do still have some problems when they need to quickly update a file made originally by me. Once the dwg is opened in autocadd this happens:

- my text, ariel narrow, looks longer/stretched/bigger when they get it.

- they may not exchange one of their "bolcks" for a symbol I have used, the one they insert is only replaced by the one I already have there. (ex titleblock with text that is too big)

- some of my grouped objects (lines mostly) when clipped and pasted in/out from this dwg loose details on the way.

- some cirles/arcs turn into small chopped up lines..

What can I do? Shall I avoid symbols? Dosen?t sound right.. What type of font corresponds best to Ariel narrow in autocad? Or rather what font really looks the same in both VW and AC?

See attached for text issue. Thanks for all help! (I had a subtle threat of having to get a pc with AC..)

[Cecilia]

I guess no one has any suggestions.

The biggest problem is the text changing shape and size. Ariel does not look like ariel once opened in Autocad.

I forgot to say above I use Vectorworks 12.5.

[jan15]

Sorry no one answered sooner. I'm not sure I can help. Can you post the DWG file? That might help us to see why there are differences. Is the black image something they sent you, or something you got in your own DWG viewer or editor? If the former, did they get that when they opened your DWG file, or when they inserted yours as a block into one of their own?

There shouldn't be any substitution for Arial or Arial Narrow truetype font, since Autocad has been able to use truetype for many years now, and everyone has those two (unless your client removed Arial Narrow from their system Fonts folder for some reason). The only other possiblity I can think of is that they might have another font called Arial Narrow that their Autocad prefers over the TTF that you're using.

Autocad complicates the font issue with text styles. A text entity doesn't have a font as one of its properties, it has a Style. Each Style is associated with a font and a width factor and some other things, plus the text entity can have font overrides that are assigned to some or all of the text in the editing window. So if they inserted your file into one of their own that already had a style called Arial Narrow, and if that style was associated with Arial regular or Swiss 721 truetype font or one of the gothic shx fonts, or had a large width factor... But that doesn't seem likely. If Autocad doesn't recognize a font when it opens a dwg file it just substitutes simplex.shx and doesn't say anything about it, but in your sample it doesn't look like that's what's happening.

I've never had any problem exporting symbols or groups to DXF. I'm not sure I understood what you said about exchanging a block for a symbol. The standard thing in Autocad is that if you insert a block from another file into a file that already has a block with that name, then what you get is the block as it's defined in the current file. If you want to re-define a block based on one in another file, you have to insert the foreign block under a different name and explode it, then select it all and use it to re-define the domestic block.

Any Group should be exported as a Block. If that block is then pasted into another DWG file, the visibility of objects in it would be based on what class you put them in and the visibility of AC "layers" in the new file.

[Cecilia]

The black drawing was only my own view from e-drawings. This is pretty much what the exported dwg looks like when they open it in AutoCad.

I tried to attach the dwg file here. I took out the titleblock etc (client discretion please)... How do I get this dwg as a part of the reply...? grrr

My groups were turning into blocks in AC, I realize this now, I will work around this.

The text distortion is the real problem.

When I open this dwg again in VWs it looks fine!

Thanks for all input.

Edited January 3, 2008 by Cecilia

[Guest]

Send the file, along with a detailed description of the problem to tech@nemetschek.net

[Cecilia]

Thank you, will do this.

[Cecilia]

Texts are still changing size when exported to .dwg for autocad users reading my file.

Mostly getting longer in overall length. Different fonts have different sizes they stretch to... any thoughts on how to get around this?

[mike m oz]

It is a longastnding problem that doesn't appear to have a solution. Use Arial if you can because it seems to work reasonably well. Its not perfect, it just limits the effect.

[jan15]

I haven't seen this problem. I've sometimes had VW and AC on the same machine, passing drawings back and forth, and texts have never been distorted as in the PNG files posted earlier. There've been slight changes with some fonts, but nothing you'd notice without careful examination. I just tried it with Arial Narrow, the font used in those posted images. I enclosed the text in a rectangle, and in the DWG file it looked exactly the same.

Cecilia, why don't you create a file containing only a text entity that gets distorted in this way, enclosed in a rectangle to show the size it's supposed to be, and then post a DWG export from it? Posting DWG files works now.