DXF fill outlines are imported as separate polylines instead of Fill contours

[Ben D]

Hiya,

I’ve been testing a workflow for 2D exports from Vectorworks to DXF/DWG to Archicad, in Archicad 28, and I’ve run into an issue with how filled shapes are imported.

In Vectorworks, a shape can have both a fill and an outline. When exported to DXF, this becomes a separate HATCH for the fill and a POLYLINE for the outline. However, the DXF still contains a clear relationship between the HATCH and its outline.

When Archicad imports the file, it creates an Archicad Fill for the HATCH and a separate Archicad Polyline for the outline, but the relationship between the two is lost (or just ignored).

This causes issues: The outline does not become the native contour of the Archicad Fill, even though an Archicad Fill has its own contour pen and line type. Secondly, because the outline is now a separate element, its drawing order can differ from the original object and seems to be appearing above other fills incorrectly (most obvious when you have overlapping fills (see my test image below)

I have confirmed through the Archicad API that a native Fill can store both a contour pen and a contour line type, so the Archicad Fill element itself is capable of representing the original object correctly.

 

So, some questions:
- Is this loss of the HATCH/outline relationship expected behaviour during DXF/DWG import?
- Is there a translator setting that can make an associated DXF boundary become the native contour of the imported Archicad Fill?
- If not, can we get a patch/fix that preserves this relationship during import?
- I can also see that there seems to be a mechanism in the translators to add "Custom Functions", which I think are compiled bundles.  is there any info on how a developer would write one of these, or documentation for the interface? 

i can provide a small test DXF demonstrating the issue if it would help.

thanks

Ben

Archicad 28, 28.4.0 (70076) AUS FULL

Mac Studio M1 Ultra, Sequoia (15.7.9)

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon Sequoia (15.7.9)