best way to export DLVPs?

[rexwexford]

hi all, 

 

as per the title really. Im looking for the simplest way to export DLVPs in a way that can be opened in autocad. 

 

i really want the simplest way of exporting 2d  information shown on a sheet layer , which is a viewport looking directly at a design layer containing information from a series of a dlvps. however when i export the dwg im getting feedback that its very complicated for other consultants to import that information in a way that represents what is shown on screen at our end. 

 

there are so many ways to export im struggling to find the option i need. has anybody got any tricks for a simple export ? 

 

to give further context (if it helps) 

 

- we have floor plans for 5 residential blocks in a row.

- although each block has the same footprint, they have different internal arrangements and therfore we built the drawing using DLVPs side by side so that we could turn on and off referenced information. 

- we have 5 drawing layers for each storey so each drawing layer has 5 DLVPS showing 5 different internal layouts side by side. and you navigate up the storeys using the drawing layers. 

 

i look forward to your response. we've really utilised DLVPs on this project and and hope this isnt a stumbling block 

 

cheers

[rexwexford]

i'm slightly tearing my hair out here as a lot of hours have gone into this system.

 

essentially it seems to export 

 

A) our plan as a layer

B) all the viewport crops of the plan variations as 'layer crops'

 

the issue is really B. because this causes confusion as people wont understand which variation goes where. really we would need to export a dwg without the additional layer crops. 

 

anyone successfully exporting dlvps? help pleas

 

[rexwexford]

so it looks like its impossible and ive wasted months down the wrong path

 

is there a way to essentially convert a DLVP as you see on screen into a 'sea of parts' of just polygons?

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by rexwexford

[Mark Mullany]

Hello!

 

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your exports, without the files it hard to say exactly what would be best, I'll pm you our support email if you want to share the files. Unfortunately AutoCAD doesn't have any way of handling our Layers, which is probably why they are seeing what they are, however heres something to try:

• Create a copy of your file as an Export file.
• Create a sheet layer and if it helps name it Model Space (the name isn't actually important).
• Lay out all the viewports you would want the AutoCAD user to see on their model space, you don't need to worry about staying within the page boundary.
• Make sure all the viewports have the same scale, it doesn't matter too much what scale so long as they ALL are the same (when they become 1to1 in the model space it uses the first viewport you made to scale them).
• It may help to Label your viewports if they are struggling to match them up their end.
• If there is anything you do not want them to see you can delete it in your export file (things like your title block, things that aren't ready yet, etc.)
• Run File> Export DWG.
• Ensure the following settings:
  • Export: Active Sheet.
  • Export Viewports as 2D graphics in Model Space.
  • Check your 'model space' sheet.
• Set your other settings as you wish, I would suggest unchecking all the fill options for a smoother transition (AutoCAD users aren't normally big on fills and it saves them deleting them).
• Click OK.

Ideally check the export in a DWG viewer, you can also import it back into Vectorworks. but that is another conversion.

The Viewports may have become Block References or similar, the Autodesk user can explode these if they wish.

 

If you would rather covert them into Lines in Vectorworks, then that is also possible:

• Take Horizontal Section Viewports of the plans you want - normal Top Plan gets re-rendered as 'hidden line' in this command - Sections are already 'hidden line' and give a better graphic for this operation.
• Select a viewport and run Modify > Convert > Convert Copy to Lines.
• This will give you a group of lines in the shape of your plan.
• You could then copy these to a design layer and rescale them (or I guess you could perhaps have run it on a 1to1 viewport).

I would run this on sheet layer viewports for the neater graphic.

 

Hope that helps!

[rexwexford]

mark thanks for the detailed response! I appreciate its difficult to understand without seeing the file. I perhaps could have given more information but was in the middle of red mist haha whilst trying to get some documents out. 

 

we produce modular residential buildings which have multiple layout options internally which are determined by customer specification after work on site has started. what we needed was a plan or symbol that has all possible permeations of layouts within it so that we can turn and and off the correct layers to show the design information on an apartment by apartment basis. Previously we have done this in symbols but it was problematic if we needed to change something that was typical to all options, such as a wall build up or services routes .

 

I thought i had been clever by building our files around DLVPs because it meant all the design info was saved once 'in place' and it was much easier to edit several layout options at once, in a way that a symbol couldnt do. it avoided the need to check all symbols were correctly referenced and updated. our file structure looks like

 

- master design library . typical floor plan options built in layers ( a different layer for each possible internal variation, kitchen types etc) 

- site file (with sheets) - a series of DLVPs referencing the above file set out to real world coordinates in the configuration of the building and all annotations on sheets. 

 

the trouble is when i export it, it seems to have so much info in the DLVPs that it shows more than what we are seeing on the sheet later, and almost x-rays the building so we see layers that we dont want to see in the dwg. (ie a kitchen from a residential 1st floor layer, gets lumped on the ground floor which might be commercial) 

 

I suppose (not having access to autocad) im not entirely sure what the consultants are seeing. I only get to see it by importing the exported dwg back into vectorworks which might be making it more complicated .I end up with a series of layer links, which become very confusing and easy to accidentally manipulate to show the wrong information unless someone knows the building. 

 

 

i will have a trial of all the above and get back to you. 

 

[rexwexford]

ive just tried your second method. I had tried it before but it wasnt working . I just got it to work by trying in an unrotated view which seemed to help. 

 

Select a viewport and run Modify > Convert > Convert Copy to Lines.

 

this is a good back stop and essentially gives me what we need as a worse case scenario . The only reason its a worse case its that it loses class information, and i'd have to do this for each apartment every time i wanted to export something. so circa 30 times. 

 

if there was a way i could export this info in the same way without individually selecting each viewport i think that could work. 

mark - can pick this up in the direct messages if easiest? 

 

thanks