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ArchiCAD-Autocad interoperability and issues with objects as blocks

akkuden
Participant

I'm using ArchiCAD to create all drawings for an ongoing project and the engineers I collaborate with use Autocad exclusively. I've tried as much as I can to tweak the DWG translator settings but some issues still arise and I wonder if anyone has better experience with this. The issues are as follows:

 

-Objects (including doors and windows), lines, and dimensions initially look okay in the native file, but dimensions mess up when moving within the native dwg file, and when copying to another dwg file, all blocks mess up completely, windows, doors, and furniture. It's as if they return to their native settings and dimensions. I've tried everything I saw suggested on forums, including ways to import the dwg etc, ensuring the units in both files are the same, etc. Also, windows and doors are only exported as blocks on the floorplan, on the elevations lines are exploded, any way to fix that?

 

My other question is would there be a decent way to go back and forth between the two programs without having to fix everything manually. For example, the engineers have a set of layers and properties they use for different elements, is there a native way to ensure the layers apply to my export without having to do them manually? 

 

If anyone has more experience working between the two programs and can give any helpful tips to make it easier to collaborate, kindly share them. 

 

Operating system used: Windows 11 24H2

2 REPLIES 2
runxel
Hero

Sounds a bit like you accidentally turned on the option to merge all instances into a single block.

You find this in the translator under "Custom Functions" > "Save Extras".

 

Sorry for german screenshot:

 

runxel_0-1745495538218.png

 

Lucas Becker | AC 27 on Mac | Graphisoft Insider Panelist | Author of Runxel's Archicad Wiki | Editor at SelfGDL | Developer of the GDL plugin for Sublime Text | My List of AC shortcomings & bugs | I Will Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again |

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Thanks for the reply @runxel, I don't have it turned on in my settings. I've also fiddled with all the settings in the translator and tried with and without, unfortunately none of them seem to make a difference where block distortion is involved. I've attached my current settings below.


Screenshot 2025-04-24 150137.png

 

Screenshot 2025-04-24 150253.png

Setup info provided by author