Collaboration with other software
About model and data exchange with 3rd party solutions: Revit, Solibri, dRofus, Bluebeam, structural analysis solutions, and IFC, BCF and DXF/DWG-based exchange, etc.

Can I (easily) import a .vwx Vectorworks file?

Anonymous
Not applicable
We received a Vectorworks file from a previous Architect. Is there a way to open this without pestering them to change the format or to use IFC?

The typical "merge" command does not work.

Thanks,
11 REPLIES 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of transferring a model from Vectorworks into ArchiCAD 21 and the previous suggestions did not work for me. DWG format completely flattens out the file when opened in AC, while an IFC file imports only specific layers of the model, even after customizing the export configurations. I also tried hiding the "unwanted" elements, a file with only the element I want to export, unlocking every part, and also combining elements in a layer that did transfer some components before. I end up with the same result which is a few elements from 2 layers being exported.
My guess si that the model to be exported should have different configurations yet I do not know what else to try. Any suggestions on what the source of the problem may be? Much appreciated!

MC
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
I think you should keep trying to do it using IFC. Experiment with various settings and ways of exporting the IFC from Vectorworks. I think it should be able to export the whole model as IFC.
As an intermediate step, you could using the free Solibri Model Viewer to check what was exported into IFC. ARCHICAD should also be able to bring in the whole IFC model.

I suspect with the current export settings the resulting IFC does not contain all the geometry and that is what you see when you import it into ARCHICAD.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac28