Ian D Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 We are about to start work on the Federal Courthouse here in Seattle. As it is a Federal Project, we are required by contract to save the drawings for the client in .DWG format, and furthermore we will be exchanging drawings with our consultants who are all using AutoCAD themselves. In the past it has not been an issue, because we have had relatively few drawings to pass back and forth, and we were in control of the layering and lineweight situation. For this project in particular, we are required to use a subset of the CAD standards that are federally mandated. The question is this: is there a way to save the lineweight-to-color conversion values as a table somewhere so that we can batch import/export DWG files into/out of Vectoworks? Is there someone that has written a VectorScript to do this? Is there someone you would recommend to write a Vectorscript to do this? Nemetschek Tech Support has stated that there is currently no way to save these values in tabular form. (similar to ctb and pcp files in AutoCAD) Nemetschek Tech Support has suggested that lineweights can be used in AutoCad 2000. Unfortunately we don't have control over what the consultants use, and as stated above, we are mandated to use DWG's or DXF's with line colors. This is going to be a very big project, and anything that can be done to automate this process would be greatly appreciated. I would even recommend putting this on a wish list for the next version of Vectorworks. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Robert Anderson Posted August 30, 2003 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted August 30, 2003 If you look at the VectorScript Function Reference that comes with VW, in its appendix, you will find the table of VS preferences for DWG/DXF: DXF Preference Selectors Preference Selector Preference Data Type Function Auto Units300 TRUE or FALSE Pref Units 301 INTEGER PrefInt DXF Units Per Inch 302 REAL PrefReal Auto Model Space Scale 303 TRUE or FALSE Pref Model Space Scale 304 REAL PrefReal 2D 3D Import Handling 305 INTEGER PrefInt Map Layers to Classes 306 TRUE or FALSE Pref Convert MLines to Walls 307 TRUE or FALSE Pref Convert Rays and XLines 308 TRUE or FALSE Pref Scale Dash Lengths 309 TRUE or FALSE Pref Dash Length Scale 310 REAL PrefReal Auto Block Attribute Handling 311 TRUE or FALSE Pref Block Attribute Handling 312 INTEGER PrefInt Auto Point Handling 313 TRUE or FALSE Pref Convert Points to Loci 314 TRUE or FALSE Pref Point Symbols are Guides 315 TRUE or FALSE Pref Map Colors to Line Weights 316 TRUE or FALSE Pref Set Line Colors Black 317 TRUE or FALSE Pref Paper Space Units 318 INTEGER PrefInt Auto Scale Dash Lenghts 319 TRUE or FALSE Pref Group Record Fields 320 TRUE or FALSE Pref Auto Line Weight Handling 321 TRUE or FALSE Pref Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Robert Anderson Posted August 30, 2003 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted August 30, 2003 I actually meant to format it better than that! But I guess my point is that VectorScript does not at the current time support the lineweight tables you seem to be asking for. I have forwarded the wishlist item to our DWG guru. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 There's no way currently, tho VW should remember your settings for the session and fill the dialog with previously chosen values. The best way to handle this currently is probably to turn off color to lineweight mapping and write a script that modifies the drawing after import and before export, or maybe just modify a copy of the drawing when you need to print and work in colors the rest of the time. Often the objects will all come in as "by layer" which can map to "by class", so you could possibly just modify class attributes with a script. Quote Link to comment
Richard Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 Well, you can't beat straight forward honesty! However, it is like a warning, "mine field ahead" for those of us who are consultants, mechanical/strctural/electrical/civil/fire protection/landscape engineers who are out there on "macs" and have to deal with reality. They never promised us a rose garden. I love V'works, it's so much better than A'cad, but all the interface in the world, won't satisfy the need to live with the standard. And to add insult to injury, the hardware is a hell of a lot cheaper. Is it better to pay 50% less for hardware and 400% more for software, that is the question-to be or not to be... Guys, you got to figure it out Quote Link to comment
Petri Sakkinen Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 quote: Originally posted by jodawi: Often the objects will all come in as "by layer" which can map to "by class", so you could possibly just modify class attributes with a script. And perhaps the best way to do that is my free 'Cloning around' collection on VectorDepot. Once you have configured your class attributes (well, twice - for import & for export) you can save the settings to be used in new/other documents. Quote Link to comment
The Hamma Posted November 10, 2005 Share Posted November 10, 2005 I have a an idea. I would work to my advantage, may be not yours, for VW to have the ability to print all as black and white, which it does have, but with the exception of the gray scales. In this way all colors would print black, but all gray scales would remain gray. Then I could draw as I am accustomed to black screen colors representing line weights, and grays being grays. Quote Link to comment
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