topic Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing in Collaboration with other software

DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:34:56 GMT

Could someone please refresh my memory -- what is the secret to maintaining the correct line type scale after placing a DWG as a Drawing within AC?

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:41:16 GMT

I seem to recall some discussion by various testers during beta that the linetype scale interpretation (LTSCALE) improvement in 12 may only work with a file Open or file Merge....? So, you might try one of those and if that is the case, you may need to Open/Merge onto a worksheet and place THAT on the layout, rather than placing the dwg directly? Also, to get the LTSCALE correct on export, I believe someone said that your conversion setup needs to refer to a dwg template having the desired LTSCALE value.

From the 12 'New Features Guide':

The LTScale variable used in DWG files will now be correctly interpreted when opening or merging DWG files in ArchiCAD. New line types will be created as needed, regardless of the length of the original line pattern.

Cheers,
Karl

PS I just noticed your signature lists 11, not 12, so I'm not sure what the trick is there off the top of my head.

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:45:57 GMT

I'd like to place the DWG as a Drawing (as opposed to Xrefing or Merging) to avoid contaminating the AC file with a bunch of useless attributes. Your suggestion does give me an idea, tho -- Merge the file into a separate instance of AC, and place that file as a Drawing...

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Eduardo Rolon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:20:03 GMT

Laura wrote:
I'd like to place the DWG as a Drawing (as opposed to Xrefing or Merging) to avoid contaminating the AC file with a bunch of useless attributes. Your suggestion does give me an idea, tho -- Merge the file into a separate instance of AC, and place that file as a Drawing...

This is the trick that I have used since AC8 when I have to explode or merge a dwg.

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Thomas Holm — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:26:12 GMT

Karl wrote:
I seem to recall some discussion by various testers during beta that the linetype scale interpretation (LTSCALE) improvement in 12 may only work with a file Open or file Merge....

AFAIK, LTscale translation should work with Drag-and-drop (Place External Drawing is the same) as well as Open or Merge in AC12. Only Xref does not handle linetype scales well.

Please read more here.

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Sculptdesign — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 14:57:08 GMT

Hi all, I currently have a line type scale issue with a placed DWG underlay which we can't explode (for project reasons). The grid lines are dot-dash but are at a very small scale so appear solid on the layout.

I've tried making the scale larger through element attributes but it doesn't work.
I have placed the file at 1:200 as there's a lot of text which works best at this scale.
I don't have the XREF option in the External Content menu, has this been removed in AC24?

I just want to make this one linetype a larger scale without changing anything else. Is this even possible?

Thanks!

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Laszlo Nagy — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 13:41:11 GMT

Did you migrate your Work Environment from an earlier AC version? That could be the reason why the XREF commands are not on your menu, because in my Archicad 24 installation, they are there. In any case, you can add them to the menu in the Work Environment Dialog.

About the line type scale issue: could you post a screenshot so I can more easily understand the exact situation?

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Sculptdesign — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 08:54:33 GMT

Thanks for the reply, I was originally using a migrated work environment but I recently had a new hard drive and it's still the same. I'm using Solo, will that matter?

The line type scale issue is in the image below, only when zoomed into 67100% does it show. I need the scale of the linetype larger but I can't seem to be able. This is a placed DWG which I can't (won't) explode.

Thanks!

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Barry Kelly — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 09:09:12 GMT

Sculptdesign wrote:
I just want to make this one linetype a larger scale without changing anything else. Is this even possible?

Does the DWG prompt you for an SHX file when you merge it?
If so getting the correct SHX file could be the answer to your problem.

If not then you can set up a DWG translator that will swap the 'bad' line for a 'good' one that you have set up in the file that you are merging into.

Or you can go to the line settings dialogue (after you have merged the DWG), find the line and alter the spacing (size) of the dashes and gaps.
You will need to multiply each of them by a scaling factor - I can't tell you what that might be as I don't have your files, but it shouldn't be too hard to work out.

Barry.

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Sculptdesign — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 09:27:48 GMT

Thanks Barry,

I don't have the SHX file, will ask in future but they're never sent with a DWG.

When you say merged, do you mean by exploding the file into the drawing? As mentioned this isn't an option it has to remain as a placed drawing file. Changing the line scale through the line settings doesn't do anything.

Ash.

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Barry Kelly — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 00:27:23 GMT

Sculptdesign wrote:
I don't have the SHX file, will ask in future but they're never sent with a DWG.

When you bring in the DWG, if it asks for an SHX file (or sometimes a few SHX files), you ideally want these, as they convert things like line types and fonts used into something that looks correct (as it did in the original DWG).

Sculptdesign wrote:
When you say merged, do you mean by exploding the file into the drawing? As mentioned this isn't an option it has to remain as a placed drawing file.

I usually merge a DWG into my files but you can place with the Drawing tool to keep them intact.
Without the SHX file, that is where the Translator comes in.
You can set it up so DWG 'Line_Type_A' becomes Archicad 'My_Line_Type_A'.
But you need to know the exact names to set up the transfer list.

Sculptdesign wrote:
Changing the line scale through the line settings doesn't do anything.

Can you post a screen shot of the settings for one of the bad line types?

Barry.

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Sculptdesign — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 10:59:32 GMT

Thanks Barry, here it is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T43iiBHF5-9FVhW5C_P86f1bHQKehuXY/view?usp=sharing

I've tried both increasing and decreasing the spacing, as well as switching between model/paper size - nothing changes in the drawing. This is definitely the linetype in the DWG, I have exploded it to check and changing the scale works when exploded, but not when placed ad an external drawing.

I don't fully understand how to use the translators yet so I need to look into that, it sounds like it will sort the problem in the end though.

Re: DWG line type scale in placed External Drawing

Barry Kelly — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 01:52:46 GMT

That line definition you shared works perfectly fine for me - I certainly don't have to zoom in to see the dashes..

I was expecting to see something like this.

Where you have to move the decimal points and change to scale independent.

Barry.