DWG Exports

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I'm having trouble with exporting to DWG, specifically with lines generated to represent walls.

Our colleagues in the Middle East insists on working in DWG, and drawings set up in such a way that they can switch layers off individually (i.e.: external wall finishes can be switched off independently of the blockwork). It's a tricky one since we've modelled walls as composites and separating out the skins into separate layers is a bit of challenge.

I've set up the translator to generate DWG layers by pen numbers, and modified the composites to use line pens and fill pens specific to the layers the skins need to be on. That seems to work fine (albeit a bit time consuming to rework the model to make sure there aren't "stray" layers). However, there seems to be an issue where walls intersect columns in that the lines representing the wall in DWG are trimmed, but the ends of the trimmed walls are left open (with no line representing the end of the wall meeting the column). I've set the "wall end lines" switched on so I would've thought the lines should automatically be shown in DWG.

Am I missing something?

Also out of interest, does anybody have a better way of exporting to DWG and separating composite skins on different layers?

[Laszlo Nagy]

I was going to recommend using the Layer by Pen Numbers option but I see that is what you are using.

Could you post two screenshots of this problem?
The first should be a typical problematic situation in ArchiCAD, the second should show the result in the DWG file.
(AC-Talk will let you attach only one image per post).

[Anonymous]

Thanks Laszlo.

Here's a screenshot in Archicad, with columns switched on.

[Anonymous]

Here's a screenshot in Archicad with the columns switched off. You'll see that the walls have been trimmed by the columns where they meet, but there is no end line to the walls.

[Anonymous]

Here's a screenshot in Autocad, with the columns switched and hatches off. Again, the green lines representing the blockwork skin of the wall composite are trimmed but no end lines where walls meet columns.

[Laszlo Nagy]

This might be an oversight on the part of the programmers.
Those lines are part of the Column geometry and there is no problem with their display when the Columns are shown.
You can see that it is already a problem in ArchiCAD: those lines do not show when the Column is hidden even in ArchiCAD.
The DWG Export only exports what is on the screen so I don't think that is a DWG export issue.
I will let the developers know about this.
Unfortunately this also means that I cannot offer much help or solution.
I can only offer a workaround: create a copy of the column and exploded it, then use the lines generated from the exploded geometry for the missing lines, assing them the same Layer line type and pen as the Wall they belong to.

[Anonymous]

That's a shame. There is another workaround that I was going to use but was really hesitant - draw 2D lines in plan where columns meet walls. It's laborious and opens up the risk of mistakes when changes happen.

Hopefully this oversight can be addressed quickly?

Thanks.

[Erika Epstein]

It's a work around, but quick to do and undo when you work.
In archicad set the DISPLAY of the walls containing the columns to 'bring to front' then they will cover the columns and the DWGs will export correctly.

Select the walls > right click>Display order>, bring to front

HTH

[Laszlo Nagy]

khairulfikri wrote:
Hopefully this oversight can be addressed quickly?

Thanks.

I really don't know how much time it will take to address this. As far as I remember this is how the program has been woking for a very long time.

[Erika Epstein]

Erika wrote:
It's a work around, but quick to do and undo when you work.
In archicad set the DISPLAY of the walls containing the columns to 'bring to front' then they will cover the columns and the DWGs will export correctly.

Select the walls > right click>Display order>, bring to front

Coversly select all the columns you want to hide and send them to back.

HTH