Importing DWG into vector works

[Paola]

Hi all,

It seems that the more I try to learn this program, the more problems I find with every step....

I am trying to create a set of architectural plans and the original site plan and survey are in autocad...

I started from scratch, created the sheet layers, design layer,and imported on the design layer, a DWG file. It imported fine (or so I thought), as soon as it got imported a new weird design layer was automatically created with the name of the cad file. My original design layer was not editable anymore. I created a VP from the new weird design layer, it did it but some classes are turned off and was a terrible pain to get them on or vice versa in the VP.

Then I tried to import a second CAD file to create another VP.I did it on the same weird design layer. It imported on top of my previous one...or something. everything looks like a huge mess. I hardly can separate things because there are so many blocks.

And when I tried to create another design layer (after I saw this mess, I thought that may work), to import the second CAD file, as soon as I opened it, it already had the first CAD file imported...why?? Is there any trick to import CAD files?

Please help me guys!!

[Benson Shaw]

A lot of things happen with ACAD imports. Lots of differing process from office to office.

I hope others with more experience, esp ACAD users, will jump in here.

Things at top my list:

Each new import into a VW file will create a new layer and reset the VW layer visibility to Show Others (or even Show Snap Others) - So you will see all visible layers even if visibility was Active Only before import.

ACAD employs a referencing process. From some sources, there will be a single (or a group of) xref file(s) with (almost) all model space info, and a series of other files with referenced subsets of the info, often including the viewports and paper space info. So your first few imports may have been from the subset files, and the latest one from the xref (hence the repeated objects). If you put all the xrefs and sub files in the same folder, you can import all of them in one import - use the bind all refs option. If that's not working, try importing each ACAD file into a new VW file. You can paste or ref into a master VW file later. Do not import into an existing project file. You can ref into a project file if needed.

I have started seeing treatment (don't know the name but might be the same as your weird layers) where a whole elevation or site plan or other drawing is presented as a single symbol on a design layer, and is not scalable - should be 1:1 but is not. I dupe the layer, make the orig invisible, assign a new name to the dupe, and use the Modify>Convert>Convert to Group command on the symbol. This releases the objects and allows everything to be rescaled to correct dims, selected, manipulated, etc.

All those classes? Can't help that, it's how they draw. Maybe all CAD folks class obsessively. There are naming conventions, but most offices seem to invent their own naming system. It starts to make sense once you understand some of the abbreviations. If possible ask the sender to explain his/her lingo and the organization of the drawings.

DraftSight (free demo) or other software might help with some of this. I never tried it. I think you can open the dwg files and see how they are supposed to look.

http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/free-cad-software/

Check the VW dwg import forum and the VW knowledge base, too.

Good luck!

-B

[Pat Stanford]

First recommendation, always import into a new blank file. DWG/WXF imports can mess up the settings in a file that already exists.

Second recommendation. Either use Copy/Paste to move the data you need to your working file or if you want to keep the extra classes created by the import "encapsulated" make a design layer viewport from the file you imported into.

[Rossford]

Talk about asking a client about import classes, I am sitting here working on a China project, and all the ACAD chinese characters came in as ?????, not that I would have understood the chinese symbols any better.

After a while of clicking one by one to figure out what layers were what, I finally had to call them for a few of them.

Technology can't solve everything.

You can give the ACAD import a prefix in the import box, which I find helpful. I usually have a prefix of X or Z for my base layers which sit near the bottom of my layer structure.

I haven't tried it, but I guess you could select all and re-assing the class and/or layer name in the shuttle file.

Using the intermediate shuttle file is imperative, as I understand it, to good ACAD import. I am working on another project in California right now, sharing drawings back and forth with an ACAD firm, and after a rough start, we figured out how to co-design in VW and ACAD, so it can be done.