topic Re: What will Autocad see with this fill? in Collaboration with other software

What will Autocad see with this fill?

Rick Thompson — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:04:08 GMT

I do need to send Autocad files out, so I need to "draft" so they can be happy and work with them. It has long been a concern as to the translation of fills, at least that is my limited understanding. I have avoided "cheating" with fills to cover an elevation miss-read due to this fact.. but I am wanting to give that up. As a consequence I have used manual elevations, and tweaked them to look right as needed. As an example, the attachment shows the needed white line fill to make footings and foundation walls dashed below the grade.

Can someone tell me what Autocad really ends up with? Is it a desaster for them to work with? I have never actually seen Autocad in real life.

My translator settings are...
Fills > Methods > Export all fills "as is"
Fill-hatch conversion is blank

thanks for any feedback

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:43:18 GMT

Hi Rick,

If you are manually drawing the 2d elevation (not a 3d model), it would be better if those lines below ground level actually used a dashed linetype, not a coverfill. Also note that white pens are automatically converted to black (and vice versa) in Autocad to ensure they contrast against the background! This would not look good with a coverfill!

Autocad interprets and displays fills 'fairly' well, but my version (LT 2004 ) cannot replicate fills from ArchiCAD, it comes up with a 'cannot find pattern' error. I don't know if this is solvable. I know AC12 has more fill conversion options in the dwg translator than AC11, but I haven't tried them yet.

You are more than welcome to email me an extract of the drawing in dwg format and I can email back some screenshots in Autocad if it helps. PM me if you're interested. You also may be able to find a free downloadable dwg viewer from Autodesk, but I'm not sure if there is a Mac version available.

Also note that you can use ArchiCAD to view dwgs directly, which will give you an 'indication' of what it may look like in Autocad. Funnily enough, ArchiCAD does a slightly neater job of interpreting its own dwgs!

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Rick Thompson — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:52:03 GMT

Thank for the info. I do model everything, but change the status to manual so I can "clean" things up. This is a problem then.. especially changing white to black!

I have not though about getting the Autocad viewer.. I am on a Mac. However, now I have Windows on it too, so I can get it and try it out. I had forgotten all about that... thanks. This seems like a potential wish of some sort. AC should handle this better.

thanks

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Rick Thompson — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:14:06 GMT

Maybe I can just avoid the whole issue and use a different fill below the grade, and not dash at all.. I think this drawing works fine. I really want to keep the model linked in all sections and elevations, but I do need to make sure Autocad ca read them.

thanks for the help

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:16:42 GMT

No problem, hope you get it sorted!

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:04:06 GMT

Hello Rick,

Rick wrote:
I have not though about getting the Autocad viewer.. I am on a Mac.

I recommend eDrawings- a free DWG viewer for Mac.

www.edrawingsviewer.com

Regards, Juha

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Brad Elliott — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:29:04 GMT

Rick,
eDrawings is the ticket.

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Rick Thompson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:36:52 GMT

thanks guys.. I will be getting it:)

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:56:55 GMT

You can also ask the person for a DWG file and use it as a Template. Karl just wrote a similar post about this a couple of days ago.
Also, you can create a Fill-Hatch pair in your Translation Setup Dialog which will always convert that ArchiCAD Fill to a specific AutoCAD Hatch. That should work. If you use a Template File, you will be able to select the hatch to be converted to from a drop-down list. That list is populated with Hatches names found in the Template File.

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Rick Thompson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:21:40 GMT

That is a bit impractical in my case... unfortunately. I am sending these to people I don't know, and probably will never talk to. They just order a "CAD" plan and it goes out the door. Last month was the first builder (they are the people who generally buy them) in .. well.. ever, to run Archicad:) And, while I rarely send out a CAD set, I have sent out several hundred over just the past 5 years. So Autocad is the rule. I will play around with your fill to hatch suggestion and see what I can find. Tom Waltz set up my generic, best shot, translator, and I rarely get complaints, but I have been unlinking the elevations to avoid any white fills... etc.

thanks for the input

ps.. I had read Karl's post, and as usual, it was quit informative.

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:46:25 GMT

In that case you can download the 30-day Trial version of AutoCAD 2009 and save a DWG file from it which has all the standard Hatches, Line Types etc. in it.
Then you can use it as a Template File.
I can actually recommend Template Files because with its use a very good data exchange channel can be established between ArchiCAD and DWG.

Re: What will Autocad see with this fill?

Rick Thompson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:52:04 GMT

Good to know they have a trial version.. and that now I have Windows on my Mac:)

Something else to do!