Need help to convert old Blueprint file to MiniCad to DXF

[IPSEngineer]

I need help converting an old Blueprint file to a DXF file.

After contacting tech support I was told there is no way to do it directly. The only way they could figure out was to find someone runnning MiniCad6 and have them import the file and then resave it (upgrading it) to a MiniCad 6 format, then I need to have someone with MiniCad 8 do the same thing.

At this point the Minicad 8 driver should be good enough to export the file a decent DXF file. While MiniCad 6 has DXF export capabilities I could lose some parts of the drawing going from MC6 to DXF and therefore the prefered method is to do it from MC8.

That said if I can't do the whole convertion part i.e. MC6 to DXF would be better then nothing.

If anyone can help with part 1 or part 2 of this upgrade I would greatly appreciate their assistance.

Thanks a bunch

Bill Porter

[jfmarch]

i don't know what system you are running, but if your Mac based you can try copying the stuff from blueprint and pasting it into VW. you might then need to 'scale' the lines to get it to the right scale of the vw drawing. once thats done you can go to another layer and 'trace' over the old file stiff. we've done it may times with our ancient clarisworks files. hope this helps...

[M_Fedoruk]

I'll try to help! I've got Minicad 4, 5, 6, & 7 and Vectorworks 8 running on my computer (and Minicad 3 somewhere in the basement...) as well as Vectorworks 10. If you're running Mac (and I presume you are if it's an old Blueprint file) I should be able to email back your file soon after receiving it. Let me know - my email is innovativeplans@shaw.ca

Mike

[IPSEngineer]

Thanks for the tips. The problem is I'm not MAC based but the guy who has the drawings is and unfortunately has no intention of upgrading to a recent version of CAD. At this point, unless I can get the drawings into DXF format I can't read them or trace them into AutoCAD. I have done the tracing thing when we converted from paper to electronic files eons ago with the advent of the PC. OOPs am I dating myself. While it's not perfect, it's a lot better then starting from scratch. Thanks.

Mike, I'll shoot you a copy of the drawing to see what you can do. Let me know what else if anything I can do to help.