Importing DWG, am I doing it the best way ?

[Viper x]

I have trouble importing DWG drawings in the VW at times, like a current drawing when it tries to open it in VW ( after I have done below )it gets stuck at different % of conversions and locks up.

Is the steps below the best way to import DWG into VW ?

Is there anything else I can do to help successful imports ?

The process I take is the following :

1.Open drawing in Autocad

2.Turn off layers I don't require.

3.Explode drawing 3 times

4.Purge 3 times

5.Save drawing

6.Open in VW (10.5)

Note:

The drawings I am importing have been created in Archicad and saved as a DWG.

I have opened plenty of these files before but at times VW has real trouble converting them and as such I am using the steps above to try and improve the conversion.

This current drawing I am having trouble with is about 8mg in Autocad format.

This drawing gets stuck at 94% "finishing converting of blocks"

Any suggestions would be a help.

[ 05-16-2004, 08:26 AM: Message edited by: Viper x ]

[Guest]

Is the program freezing (loss of mouse functionality) or producing error messages?

OR is it just staying at the 94% ?

It could be that it's just working on the conversion process.

How long are you waiting?

[Viper x]

Katie it is freezing, no error message, and I have waited 4-5min.

It is a big file at 8mg as a DWG so could it take this long to convert ?

Are the steps I am taking the best way to import a DWG ?

[Petri]

Exploding should no longer be needed, however, turning off layers does not, AFAIK, make any difference unless you say WBLOCK.

I don't know what ArchiCAD does in its AutoCAD export, but if it exports everything as blocks with attributes, 4-5 minutes is not a long time for import.

Could ArchiCAD create XREFs? Highly unlikely, but you could try binding anyway.

[ 05-17-2004, 05:44 AM: Message edited by: Petri ]

[Viper x]

Thanks Petri.

When you say exploding is no longer needed, could you explain that further please ?

Also what steps do you take when importing DWG files, is it very different from the ones I take.

One of the problems seems to be when I import there is dozens of symbols that are trying to be created in the Resource Browser and this seems to really lock the import up.

My attempts at exploding in Autocad first was to reduce the number of symbols.

Any suggestions would be a help

Thanks.

[Guest]

Viper,

You probably need to wait a little longer. I've seen some imports take up to 30 minutes - depending on the complexity of the data within the file.

If you reduce the number of symbols, you may end up without necessary data in the file. Purging prior to import is the best way to get rid of unused objects, but you probably need used objects.

[Viper x]

Thank you.