Converting Vectorworks To Audocad

[Dux]

I am sure this has been asked before. Sorry. But can this be done, and can it be used/adjusted in Autocad in something other than a single layer [something I do now for my consultants, i.e. base sheets...etc].

What if anything will get lost in the conversion, i.e. what I have currently seen--which is loss of hatching, shading. etc? Is DXF the only way? I haven't had too much luck with this for the reasons mention above. But I am a dinosaur. My manual talks about WMF. But this appears to only be for the PC [i am a mac user], and only talks about Importing, not exporting.

If converting can be done, is there a way to format the Sheets/Layers, "Save Sheets"..etc. such that this becomes easier, i.e. using the same Sheet Scale on each layer?

Finally, I am currently using Vectorworks 8.5. Is there an updated version of Vectorworks that I can purchase that will address this problem better? Will I need to get a PC--something I am not too happy about, but will do if need be?

Questions questions. Sorry.

[jan15]

No, you don't need to buy a PC, and you don't need to export WindowsMetaFile format. I always export DWG format, not DXF. Maybe the Mac won't add the filename extensions that Windows needs in order to open files, and so you'll have to do that yourself: add .dwg for AutoCad files, and .mcd for VectorWorks if you send that.

With version 8 you can only export to AutoCad 14, which doesn't handle multiple sheets in a single file, so you should export each sheet as a separate file. Even with newer versions I would do that to avoid confusion.

Also, Acad 14 doesn't have lineweight, except for polylines, so that's not going to come through unless you draw everything with polylines.

No version of AutoCad has scale, and various problems can arise trying to export a scale drawing to it. For trouble-free export I suggest changing the scale of all your layers to full size (in a temporary file), and exporting that. AutoCad likes to have everything full size, and it creates "Viewports" -- holes that it cuts in the 24" x 36" "Paperspace" to look through it into the full-size world of "Modelspace", where it likes to have everything drawn, zooming in or out inside that hole to create an illusion of scale. Any Autocad user can do that very quickly.

Note also that the VW default is to export Classes as AutoCad "Layers" (since that's the nearest equivalent; AutoCad doesn't have real layering), but if you want instead to export Layers as "Layers" there's an option in the Export Options window.

And of course you need to give them any non-standard fonts you used (any fonts that they don't already have installed), or their system will substitute another font which won't fit in the spaces you alloted.

I've never had any trouble exporting from VW 8, using the above procedures. However, version 10 may have an advantage for you in that you can give your consultants the free VectorWorks Viewer (which only reads version 9 or 10 files), and then you can send them the VW file along with the DWG file (the real file, not the full-size one you exported from), so they can see what the drawing would look like if they had a good Cad program. If you used more than one scale on a sheet, and if they want to arrange the sheet just as you did, they'd need either a printout or the Viewer to see how you did it. And the upgrade from 8 to 9 is not very expensive.

[Guest]

Hatches -

AutoCad Hatches are not imported into VW in VW versions prior to VW 10.

If you upgrade to VW 10, you can import the hatches as well as export your VW hatches to AC hatches.

Solids on 2d objects are dropped in versions of VW prior to VW 10.

All 2d objects get exported to dxf/dwg as none fills rather than their respective solid color setting.

AutoCad only draws in one scale. They use paper space and viewports to display the objects with different scales.

The paper spaces themselves come into VW with the correct layer ratio, while View ports are still not supported by the import process even with VW 10.

Thus, viewports are "dropped". These are essentially copies of an original object somewhere else in the document, so the original object is not gone. Just the copied shunken object.

When exporting to dxf/dwg, only the current sheet is exported.

If you have multiple sheets, they will need to be exported as separte files.

However, this is not necessary.

Just make one sheet that has all the necessary layers and classes set to be visible and export away.

All the objects will display as they do in the various layers as classes as the file was saved in VW.

[Dux]

Wow!!!! Thanks for the quick reply. I guess I may want to upgrade to VW10.

Mahalo for all your help.