topic Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker in Collaboration with other software

Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

TDabney — Tue, 18 Nov 2003 19:16:15 GMT

Hi -

This may be more of a wish. . . I would like to publish layouts in PM to DWG. I would like those DWGs to look like the pages I've arranged in PM. For example, in a layout I have some elevations. In ArchiCAD, the way I do my elevations is to eventually unlink them and drag a grouped copy down 100' or so to edit. I leave the original elevation generated from the model so any updates can be transfered easily to the (now) cleaned up line drawing below. In PM, I just have the cleaned up elevation showing - by adjusting the "view frame". When I publish the layout to a DWG, the entire - unadjusted view frame - section view is published. It also seems to get moved around from how I layed it out on the PM page. I know there are other ways to get around this but. . . PM is our "layout" solution. When I send my drawings to consultants, I want them to look as they would if I sent them a hard copy. It seems like PM should be able to produce this. - Am I doing something incorrectly or missing something?

PS: the same goes for the master layouts.

Tom

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Nov 2003 23:52:19 GMT

TDabney wrote:
Hi -

This may be more of a wish. . . I would like to publish layouts in PM to DWG. I would like those DWGs to look like the pages I've arranged in PM. For example, in a layout I have some elevations. In ArchiCAD, the way I do my elevations is to eventually unlink them and drag a grouped copy down 100' or so to edit. I leave the original elevation generated from the model so any updates can be transfered easily to the (now) cleaned up line drawing below. In PM, I just have the cleaned up elevation showing - by adjusting the "view frame". When I publish the layout to a DWG, the entire - unadjusted view frame - section view is published. It also seems to get moved around from how I layed it out on the PM page. I know there are other ways to get around this but. . . PM is our "layout" solution. When I send my drawings to consultants, I want them to look as they would if I sent them a hard copy. It seems like PM should be able to produce this. - Am I doing something incorrectly or missing something?

PS: the same goes for the master layouts.

Tom

Tom,

I am familiar with your drawing technique...and I haven't had a problem exporting to DWG...My page {paper space} looks the same as my layout...of course, one difference would be that I change all of the 2d lines' layer affiliation and then assign an S/E view set to the 2d layer combination....this prevents any objects from displaying on the S/E page...just lines and fills....

and don't get me started on 8.1/3.1 publishing the dwg with xrefs is working without a hitch...very nice feature!

I am a little unclear about your post-script...what about the master layouts?

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

TDabney — Wed, 19 Nov 2003 20:04:04 GMT

Richard wrote:

Tom,

I am familiar with your drawing technique...and I haven't had a problem exporting to DWG...My page {paper space} looks the same as my layout...of course, one difference would be that I change all of the 2d lines' layer affiliation and then assign an S/E view set to the 2d layer combination....this prevents any objects from displaying on the S/E page...just lines and fills....

I guess that's the trick (an extra step or two though for layer and layer combo management) - to make sure each window when updated in PM is displaying only what you want shown. This gets to be harder when one has stuff off to the sides of drawings like notes, schematic options, extra section/elevation lines etc...

Richard wrote:
and don't get me started on 8.1/3.1 publishing the dwg with xrefs is working without a hitch...very nice feature!

This is beyond my needs and skill level at the moment!

Richard wrote:
I am a little unclear about your post-script...what about the master layouts?

I draw my title blocks in AC on their own story and import them just as any other drawing. If I have more than one titleblock in the same project, I have them all arranged next to each other on the same story. In PM, when I place a title block in a master layout, I just adjust the view (bounding box) to show the one I want. When I publish a layout using this master layout, all the titleblocks end up shown - just like what happens with the other drawings in my original post. I guess I just have to change my workflow.

Tom

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2003 21:08:19 GMT

TDabney wrote:

I draw my title blocks in AC on their own story and import them just as any other drawing. If I have more than one titleblock in the same project, I have them all arranged next to each other on the same story. In PM, when I place a title block in a master layout, I just adjust the view (bounding box) to show the one I want. When I publish a layout using this master layout, all the titleblocks end up shown - just like what happens with the other drawings in my original post. I guess I just have to change my workflow.

Tom

A lot of very benficial views can be achieved with careful layer management. How many titleblocks do you use? You could put each one (A,B,C,D) on a different story all sharing the same layers ie)...Title Block-Border....Title Block-Text...Title Block-Logo....
One layer-combo of Title block...Drag a view from each story into a titleblocks viewset subfolder...Redefine their names to their appropriate sizes/ scales and voila...

We do that similarly, but our titleblock pln is a seperate file.

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 04:09:02 GMT

TDabney wrote:

Richard wrote:
and don't get me started on 8.1/3.1 publishing the dwg with xrefs is working without a hitch...very nice feature!
This is beyond my needs and skill level at the moment!

Don't worry ... only difference between xrefs and what you're doing now is changing one option in the translator. Only one hand and two clicks required.

(I had to drop a line into this thread so that we had all three corners of Idaho covered. 😉 )

Karl

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:05:59 GMT

I also have a query regarding publishing to AutoCAD:

When publishing from Archicad, I can 'explode complex archicad elements' and this will give me good DWGs with walls represented by simple lines in the colours of my original archicad file. When we work in autocad printed line thickness is dependant on colour.

However when publishing from Plotmaker, this option is NOT available in the translator settings box, and I end up with a DWG with walls represented by thick polylines.

I would prefer to use plotmaker to publish, since it retains layout, but at the moment I think I will have to publish every storey/view from Archicad and recompose the layouts in AutoCAD paperspace.

Am I missing something? I thought Plotmaker and Archicad shared the same translation settings.

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

__archiben — Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:20:55 GMT

hi kev

have you set up a pen-colour conversion table for your autocad penset, (see attached)?

you can also set pens to "BY LAYER". this will affect only the output of the dwg (archiCAD and plotmaker) and then change layer pen thicknesses accordingly in autocad.

i've not used autocad myself, however lots of telephone conversations with consultants help to get a get a better understanding of the conversion process. it's kind of 'trial and error' playing with the settings to begin with though . . .

plotmaker and archiCAD do share the same translator settings, but some are only available for 'paperspace' publishing (plotmaker) and some only available for 'modelspace' publishing (archiCAD). if you go to Tools->DWG DXF Translation Setup in archiCAD you will see the full compliment, but read through the small print in the dialogue - it tells you which settings affect which programmes when there is a difference . . .

~/archiben (ben from pompey. how are you?)

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

TomWaltz — Wed, 03 Dec 2003 16:07:51 GMT

we have a translator set up, with all our line weights set to 0.00., but the DWG lines still have a thickness when we open them in AutoCAD.

We tried switching the display to "Hairline," but it's annoying to switch every time.

Is there another way to get rid of line thicknesses going out to AutoCAD?

Thanks!

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

__archiben — Wed, 03 Dec 2003 17:24:00 GMT

knacad wrote:
we have a translator set up, with all our line weights set to 0.00., but the DWG lines still have a thickness when we open them in AutoCAD.

as well as setting up the pen-colour conversion table, you need to specify that it gets used in the conversion process . . .

the tab above the pen-colour conversion table, "Methods", lets you specify whether the pens follow this table that you have created, or assign pens "BY LAYER". i think this refers to the autocad function of assigning a 'style' to everything on a layer, i.e. pens, colours, weights, linetypes, etc... (somebody correct me if i'm wrong, i've never used autocad).

since the improved translators in archiCAD 8+, i have only ever output my pens through the pen-colour conversion table so that, regardless of layer, the pen weight stays the same at the other end.

~/archiben

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 12:32:34 GMT

I have a problem in exchanging from PM to DWG.
my files are imported to PM as pmk not direct from AC file..
when i want to publish to dwg it doesn't work, cause the only option that i can publish with is postscript or any other image extension... can someone help and tell me where did i go wrong?
Gobel

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

David Larrew — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 19:05:19 GMT

gobel wrote:
when i want to publish to dwg it doesn't work, cause the only option that i can publish with is postscript or any other image extension... can someone help and tell me where did i go wrong?
Gobel

Be sure that your PM install has all of the required translation .DLLs and other required AC shared files.

Which AC and PM versions are you running?

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:18:18 GMT

I have the same problem. The archicad guide Vol 2 states you can save layouts in PM as DWG but I can find no option to do this when I select "saveas" other than the native layout format. What am I doing wrong? I am running AC version 8.1 and PM 3.1.

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Djordje — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 04:56:35 GMT

michael wrote:
I have the same problem. The archicad guide Vol 2 states you can save layouts in PM as DWG but I can find no option to do this when I select "saveas" other than the native layout format. What am I doing wrong? I am running AC version 8.1 and PM 3.1.

File/Publisher/Publish

Drag the layout book to the right window. Name the set, choose the folder you are saving to. Set the file format to DWG (by default it is DWF). Set the translation properties in the Translator.

That's it.

HTH,

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 20:11:34 GMT

gobel wrote:
I have a problem in exchanging from PM to DWG.
my files are imported to PM as pmk not direct from AC file..
when i want to publish to dwg it doesn't work, cause the only option that i can publish with is postscript or any other image extension... can someone help and tell me where did i go wrong?
Gobel

See this topic discussed in the "Construction Documentation" section under "Plotmaker" I raised the same question and got the answers there. basically you need to go to the publisher Dialoge box and dig a little deeper into the options buttons. You will see a screen shot of the Dialoge box in the section mentioned above.

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Dec 2003 20:20:20 GMT

I've posted the results of a small experiment/study under the topic:

ArchiCAD-Talk Forum Index >>> Data Exchange and Information Sharing >>> Converting Fonts to Autocad

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:05:33 GMT

Referring to my problem with line thicknesses earlier in this discussion:

I have now found that when publishing from PlotMaker to DWG, as well as setting your pen to colour conversion table in ArchiCAD (and making sure this is the method used) the display options of PlotMaker should be set to 'hairline'.

Failure to make this change will result in the AutoCAD DWG being made up of POLYLINES of different thicknesses (rather than simple lines with widths informed by their colour), thereby defeating the object of setting up translation tables and colour/linewidth definitions.

I could see no reference to this in the ArchiCAD manual, and the discovery is a complete fluke.

I hope this is of use to someone.

Regards,

Kevin

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 07:35:43 GMT

Djordje wrote:
michael wrote:
I have the same problem. The archicad guide Vol 2 states you can save layouts in PM as DWG but I can find no option to do this when I select "saveas" other than the native layout format. What am I doing wrong? I am running AC version 8.1 and PM 3.1.
File/Publisher/Publish

Drag the layout book to the right window. Name the set, choose the folder you are saving to. Set the file format to DWG (by default it is DWF). Set the translation properties in the Translator.

That's it.

HTH,

Djordje, I have tried your same instructions using AC9, but when I open the newly written .dwg file, it opens empty! However, it's listed attributes, by the file size show it to be normal. I have tried using the default translator and also a translator that uses xrefs. Neither yeilds a file that I can successfully open with anything 'seen'. Any ideas?

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Aussie John — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 08:02:49 GMT

TDabney wrote:
Hi -

When I publish the layout to a DWG, the entire - unadjusted view frame - section view is published. Tom

There is an option in the translator to crop the layout to only that seen.

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 14:18:16 GMT

Patrick wrote:

Djordje, I have tried your same instructions using AC9, but when I open the newly written .dwg file, it opens empty! However, it's listed attributes, by the file size show it to be normal. I have tried using the default translator and also a translator that uses xrefs. Neither yeilds a file that I can successfully open with anything 'seen'. Any ideas?

I was experiencing the same thing yesterday, but when I took the file to our only PC with AC2000 the file opened fine. Not sure what the issue is when reimporting DWG's that had just been published with plotmaker.

Re: Publishing to DWG in Plotmaker

__archiben — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 04:55:17 GMT

Patrick wrote:
Djordje, I have tried your same instructions using AC9, but when I open the newly written .dwg file, it opens empty!

it's not empty!

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=29064#29064

~/archiben