Vectorworks 2008 to Acad 2007 Project origin

[Rshah]

Hi,

We are working on a large hospital project where some consultants use Autocad 2007 and Landscape architect use Vectorworks 2008. I know very little about Vectorworks myself but i have to manage whole CAD workflow.

Now my question is:

We have project site origin set and everyone is using that origin to produce their information. So when we try to Xref (sorry to use Acad jargons here) in Acad all discipline drgs sit at right position and orientation. But when we get landscape archtiect's DWG export from Vectorworks, it doesnt match the project origin. We have to manually rotate and move their drawings in Acad. Isn't there a way to get Vectorworks export DWG having same project origin as Acad dwg?

Thanks in anticipaiton of your help.

[panta rhei]

It is likely that the landscape architect has ignored the project origin and orientation for one reason or another. Technically registration works just fine, it's a pity there are humans involved...

Tell them to Set Origin appropriately (and also to turn off ?rulers? and possible rotated grids) and to start to use Rotate Plan instead of rotating the plan. (Yes, this does mean something!)

Unfortunately in VW there is no UCS, so many users move the origin willy-nilly.

[Rshah]

Thanks Pantra for the quick response.

So does this mean that if i ask the landscape architect to follow what you said and then export as DWG, the exported DWG will have correct project origin and orientation in acad?

and we dont need to move rotate his drawings?

If you dont mind, can you please explain steps briefly?

He recieves archtiect's plans which are set with project UCS in Acad model space. He says, he then imports these drawigns and rotate them and work in a rectilinear method.

Thanks in anticipaiton of your help.

N.B.: I am sorry to ask this stupid questions. I am a layman in Vectorworks. But i am really impressed with the active forum members. I am sure if i have to learn Vectorworks myself then I will learn a lot from this forum.

[panta rhei]

Yes, Rahul, that's exactly what I mean.

Instead of ?physically? rotating the plan, they should use the Rotate Plan feature, which does the rotation ?virtually?. (Also they should learn to use VW: I almost never rotate the plan and in my designs, angles are 90? only because of a good reason, derived from the circumstances. Nothing against right angles, though, some of my best friends are square.)

After they've reinstated the project origin, they should place a reference marker there, eg. a locked locus on a specific layer, should they again manage to ?move the world?. It's all too easy to do. (If there is a truly serious shortcoming in VW, the lack of UCS is it.)

[islandmon]

Recall that Acad has a default origin at the page lower left , whereas VW uses the page center.

VW Landscape can be easily reset if the exact Acad file -X-Y distance is declared prior to export to DWG.

This is a generic problem which goes both ways. Setting an origin symbol will help to expedite the conversions.

[dspearman]

The LA may have enables a setting that sets the origin to page center when initially importing a DWG with the base information. There are settings that allow the LA to respect the origin when he imports his base info. After that, if the LA doesn't change it - it should be maintained when they export back to DWG.