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My experience is that I cannot export my 8.52 files "exactly" to DWG without losing some things. I work with ACAD people and exporting a file for them to use is always problematic. Layers and classes are disorganized and confusing... line weights need massaging... and there are "lcous" marks all over the drawing... proabably realted to the windows and doors in walls. No fills seem to export. What am I doing wrong? Does any one have a step by step way of setting up an export so that the dwg file is actually USABLE by the ACAD drafters?

Also.... When I draw a plan... I typically stack up the floors on separate layers... which is something I find convenient and logical.. but to export such a file I have to do each floor and its associated layers separately making several dwg files. Am I doing this wrong?

Is there a decent quide on exporting to dwg other than the manual's basic explanation?

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The things that you are seeing different when eporting to dwg is common. This is simply due to the differences in the two programs. They have a different class and layer structure, and they see fills different than VW treats fills. The same with line weights. Unfortunately, that's the way it is. As AutoCad allows other companies such as us to understand more about the structure of the drawings we find better ways that we can manipulate our data to match it more accurately. However, due to the sheer difference in structure of the layout and the structure of objects, there are going to be inconsistancies. An export to another file type such as dxf or dwg is not going to be seamless.

The back of the VW 8 user's manual has more information about the limitations of exporting to dxf/dwg and the things that are lost or altered.

As for the second part of your post, I'm a little confused. Do you have each floor on it's own layer, or is one floor on several layers ?

[ 05-31-2002: Message edited by: Katie ]

[ 05-31-2002: Message edited by: Katie ]

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Make all your relevant plan layers visible (creating one heck of a mess on your screen!), then export to ACAD. Your layers will be translated to ACAD layers, which the ACAD user can turn off and on and manage in ways which are functionally equivalent to VW layer management.

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VW layers become classes... WHat do VW classes become? Nothing? If I understood how ACAD thinks I could maybe work in a manner which would make export simpler.. and still allow me to work in VW as I do.. but alas I am ACAD illiterate.

To answer Katies question about my "floors" and layers.... One floor may have information on several layers. I pit the wiring and RCP stuff on a separate layer... although I could assign them to a class and turn the class on when I want to see the RCP. Similarly I often do a structure plan on a separate layer. I am just getting into using clasees and class visibility...

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defjef,

ACAD does not have classes, only layers - advantage VW!

There is a box in the export dwg dialog that asks whether to convert classes to dxf layers. If you check that box, the ACAD file will have a set of layers corresponding to your set of classes. If you don't, the ACAD file will have a set of layers corresponding to your layers. There is no way to sort some objects by class and others by layer, its all one way or all the other.

In both cases, unless you request otherwise, only visible objects will be translated. As a rule, I make sure that invisible objects are not exported because you can often get results you didn't expect if you don't go that way. The translations are not ideal, but they're a lot better than they used to be! I find that VW 9 is at lot better at these exports when it comes to issues of line weight, font size, dealing with layers of different scales, etc.

NNA: It would be possible to have the translator assign ACAD layers that combine VW layer and class, so you would end up with a set of layers like 1st_Fl_Plan_None and 2nd_Fl_Plan_None. Some users might find this a good tool.

[ 06-01-2002: Message edited by: P Retondo ]

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This may or may not be of any help, but sometimes I will send more than one file to ACAD people. For example, if my structural engineer needs my floor framing plan and my roof framing plan I will export each saved sheet separately and then send each to the engineer. That way they can overlay their stuff on each relevant plan. PLC

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John;

Am I correct that layer links do not export. I have had times went the receiving party says that my exported file is empty. The cuprit seemed to be trying to export a sheet whos images were not on that sheet but linked to other sheets. When I exported the "master" sheet, everything worked fine.

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John,

What you suggest is what I in fact do. The problem is that in order to avoid error, the VW user should a copy of ACAD and know how to do a few things with it, to place the xref at the correct location. And with VW 8, I believe there is a potential for difficulty if the xref is updated following a change in the location of the VW file origin.

On VW 8, at least, links can't be exported to a .dwg or .dxf file. Again, I think it would be possible to write a function allowing that if NNA chose to do so.

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quote:

Originally posted by P Retondo:[QB]NNA: It would be possible to have the translator assign ACAD layers that combine VW layer and class, so you would end up with a set of layers like 1st_Fl_Plan_None and 2nd_Fl_Plan_None. Some users might find this a good tool.

I've considered doing something like that, but i don't think i've had any requests for it before now. Probably the better solution would be to export each layer as an xref dwg and export a master document that combined the different xrefs. Then VW Class <-> DXF Layer, and VW Layer <-> DXF file, and VW Sheet <-> DXF Layout (maybe; depending on technical details, each layout might be better off in its own file.)

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John:

Cool idea, but then again so was the amphicar.

I wouldn't want my engineers' drawings imported with xrefs set up for how the consultants use the information (and split up correspondingly), so I doubt that the consultants would want the information split up into separate files according to what I'm doing. If I were you, I'd keep the xref ACad feature as a means of translating workgroup referencing. Please.

In fact, our consultants are usually too lazy to turn off the necessary items for their drawings; they just make everything grey and a thin lineweight. Working with component files wouldn't fly.

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