Exporting Viewports

[siewertdesign]

I have just created a real nice drawing in V11 with multiple annotated viewports referenced to a 3D NURBS model layer.

It's nice to look at, but now what?

I need to send a 2D DWG version to a client. Is there a way to export the drawing that doesn't create polygonal mesh objects? The only way I've figured out is to export EPS to Illustrator then export again to DWG.

[Guest]

If you directly export to DXF, the viewports will still be there. Exporting to EPS first will result in a loss of the viewports.

[siewertdesign]

Thanks for the response Katie, but I haven't had any luck with DXF either. When exporting DXF from VW then importing back into VW, the model turns into a polygonal mess. Isn't there a way to export the exact viewport rendering (i.e. hidden line) in 2D?

[Guest]

Well, if you want 2d objects, you'll need to convert your 3d objects to 2d objects.

The 2d objects should then go out without any problem.

[Guest]

You can convert the 3d objects to 2d polygons by using the convert copy to polygons or convert to polys command under the tool menu. THis will ask you which rendering mode the objects should be created in - hidden line, wireframe, etc.

So you can get the result you are looking for.

[siewertdesign]

Well, where and when to you convert the objects? If you mean when you re-import the DXF file into VW, that doesn't work either. If you converting the 3D model before exporting, then obviously you don't get a hidden line drawing.

What I see is a NURBS object translated to a 2D polygonal mesh. I want to see a hidden line 2D drawing that look like the original. What is even more anoying is that the exported DXF file has created a myriad of symbols including dimesions and text callouts.

[siewertdesign]

Thanks for your help Katie, but I still haven't got the results I'm looking for. The best result so far is to select the viewport and CONVERT TO LINES command. That gets me a 2D group showing hidden lens, but then my referenced dimension and callouts get altered (i.e. loses text and arrowheads). If I can preserve the references somehow, we might have something. It would be nice to a single command or script to do all these steps before exporting.