DWG Import - Set all attributes by class

[Ross McLee]

Hi,

Having spent an hour or so on the phone with one of your very helpful support team I thought it prudent to add this feature request to save time and effort for others in the future.

 

I have imported several DWGs into separate reference files and used reference viewports to view/snap to them in my main working file. However I want to grey out these backgrounds in the sheet layers so that my content (not the architect's) is clearly visible against their background.

 

By using viewport class overrides this should be possible (setting the line and fill colours to grey). I was advised today that this only works if ALL the reference file objects have their attributes set by class. The DWG import doesn't have an option to do this. Setting all objects to by class manually after the import doesn't always work well since the AutoCAD layer definitions (which are converted directly to classes - which is the right thing to do) may not have been used by every object in the drawing (colour by layer/fill by layer etc) but instead set manually.

 

Is there any clever way around this problem (perhaps creating more classes where manual overrides have been used). Creating and using classes based on an objects current line type/colour/fill type/colour etc to create a class automatically and apply the same class to objects with identical attributes and then setting all attributes by class? (I envisage hundreds of 'sub-classes' being created)

 

The other problem arises when dealing with hatches. AutoCAD, unless I am mistaken, allows you to use hatches where the hatch line colour is determined by the layer, VW has individual hatches one per colour if needed .... adding to my problems. I went through and changed all the pen colours and set them to grey (but I don't think that a good idea).

 

Love to hear your thoughts.

 

R

 

 

[Matt Panzer]

Hi @Ross McLee,

 

I think the best way to handle this would be to:

1. Open the Organization Dialog
2. Select all of the classes of objects you want to set attributes "by class"
3. Click the "Edit" button
4. In the "Edit Class(es)" dialog, select the "Use at Creation" checkbox and click OK.
5. When doing this, you should see another dialog asking if you want to set the attributes of all existing objects to "by class".  Click "Yes" or "Yes to All" and the objects should all change their attributes to by class.  BTW:  This should also effect objects nested in symbols and groups.

 

[Christiaan]

On 6/2/2021 at 6:37 PM, Matt Panzer said:

4. In the "Edit Class(es)" dialog, select the "Use at Creation" checkbox and click OK.

5. When doing this, you should see another dialog asking if you want to set the attributes of all existing objects to "by class".  Click "Yes" or "Yes to All" and the objects should all change their attributes to by class.  BTW:  This should also effect objects nested in symbols and groups.

In order to get the popup to appear you may need to check, uncheck then check again, if some but not all of the Classes are already set to Use at Creation.

[JoeDrafter]

This doesn't seem to work for 2D Symbol.

[Christiaan]

2 hours ago, JoeDrafter said:

This doesn't seem to work for 2D Symbol.

No, you need to either go into the symbol and edit separately or, as I generally do, convert the relevant symbols to groups, ungroup them. You can actually choose to import everything as 'exploded blocks' (DWG Import Options > Advanced > Blocks > Explode all blocks) when you import the DWG but I find this can result in loss of information such as drawing numbers.

[Julia79]

Good afternoon,

I'm struggling to see the colours by class from a DWG I'm trying to import.

(I wasn't sure if I should open a new thread or continue on this one. Thought about replying here as it's related. Please let me know otherwise)

I have several files I need to import to VWX and normally I don't have any issues, with this latest package of drawings I can not find a way to see the class clours.

I tried all the above (I think), tried:
- all the options on the Advance settings of the import window (create symbols and groups, convert all blocks to groups, explode groups)
- tried the "use at creation" tricks (clicking and unclicking)

But I can not manage to get the pop up window:

Cita

you should see another dialog asking if you want to set the attributes of all existing objects to "by class".  Click "Yes" or "Yes to All" and the objects should all change their attributes to by class.  BTW:  This should also effect objects nested in symbols and groups.

In order to get the popup to appear you may need to check, uncheck then check again, if some but not all of the Classes are already set to Use at Creation.

 

I see the class colours on the lines, which are only a polyline, but the triangles are a block in Autocad that has a class, and the object inside the block is on Class 0.

Exploding everything shows all the triangles on class 0.

 

Any tips? anything I'm missing?

I spent several hours playing with these arrows with no success 😕

 

Any help will be really appreciated,

Thanks

EDIT: I'm using Vectorwors 2023 Spotlight

 

arrows.dwg

Edited October 6, 2024 by Julia79
adding VWX version used

[zoomer]

17 minutes ago, Julia79 said:

I tried all the above (I think), tried:
- all the options on the Advance settings of the import window (create symbols and groups, convert all blocks to groups, explode groups)
- tried the "use at creation" tricks (clicking and unclicking)

 

That is what I wanted to propose too  .....

OK, does not work ....

 

 

19 minutes ago, Julia79 said:

but the triangles are a block in Autocad that has a class, and the object inside the block is on Class 0.

Exploding everything shows all the triangles on class 0.

 

 

That is Autocad behavior.

In VW we usually have all Symbols on None or a Container Class and Symbol Content

uses its own (e.g. "Material-") Classes.

Vice versa Autocad users mostly control Block Content's Attributes "by Block".

 

So that Autocad users can e.g. use their single black triangle Block and set their

Block Instances to any Attributes/colors by changing the Block Attributes.

(I prefer the simple and clean VW Symbol system where an Instance is always

 the exact same copy and appearance of that Symbol ...)

 

 

Poohhh,

I don't it makes much sense to enter each Symbol and set its Content's Class ....

(As Autocad users, which have no real Group option, usually have millions of Blocks

 in a single file. They use Blocks for anything, for just "Blocks", for Groups, for Story

 separation, .....)

 

Maybe @Pat Stanford has or knows a Script that would convert all Block+Content

ACAD LAyer settings vice versa to VW standard by reading all Blocks of a certain Layer,

applying the Block's Layer to the Block Content and controlled by Class attributes

and finally, optionally,  the Block itself to None Class if needed.

 

[Julia79]

Thanks for the quick reply!
 

Cita

That is what I wanted to propose too  .....

OK, does not work ....

Well, it has not worked for me, but maybe I have not explored all options properly (?)
I attached the DWG file, maybe someone is looking to kill some time and is keen to give it a try?

[Jeff Prince]

2 hours ago, Julia79 said:

I see the class colours on the lines, which are only a polyline, but the triangles are a block in Autocad that has a class, and the object inside the block is on Class 0.

Exploding everything shows all the triangles on class 0.

 

Are you simply trying to get the arrows to match the color of the Class they are on?

 

If so, they fastest route is to import the .dwg with blocks exploded.

You can then grab the arrows and place them on the correct class and set their attributes to by class.

 

Some of those blocks have text in them and it goes a little crazy in Vectorworks.  You can fix this by grabbing all the text elements and changing their width to 1", SPACING to 'single', and size to 12pt.  This will make them a little more manageable than their initial giant bounding boxes are.

From there you can fine tune how you want that text to looks and size.

 

The person who designed this in AutoCAD did so correctly, as they made their blocks with objects on the 0 Layer.  This allows the arrow symbols to inherit the graphic attributes of the class they are placed on.  Vectorworks does not have a functional equivalent, something we have been requesting for a while.

 

Your situation is much like this one I just replied to:

 

 

 

[Julia79]

Thanks for the reply.

 

This is one of many files of a tender package. To give some context, the package consists on 25 venues, and each of them has a site layout and and on each site layout one of the groups is a block are all the arrows and lines (pedestrian and vehicular routes), like the one I shared on the previous post.
As part of the tender we have to work on these files considering the different routes, let's say I have to place different types of fencing depending on the type of crowd flowing on each path.

Exploding all blocks it's not an option, even if I isolate the arrows and lines (flow routes), exploding all these arrows and manually placing them on the correct class would take us a lot of time and also be a dangerous source of errors.

 

I really appreciate your insight though, I see it's a common issue.

I couldn't believe, within all the import options there wasn't one that worked.

Thanks again

[Jeff Prince]

8 hours ago, Julia79 said:

Exploding all blocks it's not an option, even if I isolate the arrows and lines (flow routes), exploding all these arrows and manually placing them on the correct class would take us a lot of time and also be a dangerous source of errors.

 

There is no easy way to manually edit your file in Vectorworks given those blocks contain text used symbolically with the arrows.

You might want to request a new file from the publisher with the blocks defined in a more Vectorworks friendly manner.

Or

You might be able to get someone here to write you a custom script to help process the data, if the person who made it followed a consistent standard.

[Julia79]

Thanks Jeff, the deadline of the tender is approaching, and we are spending too much time finding our way to do it in Vectorworks, so I think we will go back to Autocad and doing it there.

I really appreciate everyone's feedback, at least I know the options.

 

Such a pity, something that seems "simple", like importing a DWG file to VWX and expecting to see the same colours... and it becomes such a tedious task that our team decides to do it in Autocad....

 

Thanks!

Edited October 9, 2024 by Julia79