topic importing old dwgs in Documentation

importing old dwgs

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:35:28 GMT

Morning all,
I am just trying to figure out the best way to import drawings into my projects. I have some old dwg drawings from '97 of an aged care facility. The drawings are of each sheet separately eg A1 A2 A3 etc. The drama I have with importing cad drawings is that I draw in archicad at 1:1 and most of these drawings are scaled 1:100 or in one case not accurately scaling at all. I have been importing the drawings and then 'exploding them into current view' so i can 'resize' to an accurate scale at 1:1. If i use attach x-ref I can choose scale on screen but I can't see the dimensions in the original drawings until after i have imported it and then it doesn't let me rescale it. I would like to just use these drawings as xrefs as i don't want all the extra layers and file size etc. How does the rest of the world do this? What are you processes. I am the only 'electronic' drafty in my office and sometimes I am not sure if I am doing things the hard way.
Cheers Jo

Re: importing old dwgs

Srinivas — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:28:42 GMT

Hi Jo,
While importing your AutoCAD drawings are you setting the correct scale factor in the DXF-DWG translator?

More info on this here.

http://www.archicadwiki.com/DWG/import?highlight=%28Translator%29

Hope this helps.

Re: importing old dwgs

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:04:00 GMT

Yes - I think so. The problem is that if the file is just a name in our archives I have no idea what scale the plan is drawn at. I have to sometimes import it twice, once to see what the scale is and what is drawn in the drawings and then again to bring it in at the correct size. I guess what I am asking is the process that you experienced users go through when you are importing / xrefing old drawings. Do you import them into a worksheet; then explode them and then spend ages fiddling with layers and lines to get information from the old drawings? I have drawings coming from all over the place so there is little continuity with existing drawings.

Re: importing old dwgs

NCornia — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:58:36 GMT

Jo,

Look at the webinars on this page: http://graphisoftus.com/events.php There are two dedicated to what you want. If you do not have the ArchiPlus subscription you can simply login as a guest.

HTH

Re: importing old dwgs

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:37:04 GMT

Thanks troops - I will let you know if it gets any clearer.
jo