DWG Import

[Anonymous]

Have tried to look into archive without finding the right answer... Sorry if this has been posted before...

Received new Topo file in DWG format from a surveyor we have not used in the past. When I try to open up the file, it opens up blank. Also, looking into the layers, there are no new layers with the typical Topo layers, nothing at all in fact.

Can anyone give any pointers? Could it be file corruption on the DWG? Could it be that the DWG was saved in a ACAD version that is too recent - I am using AC9.0 on a Windows XP machine.

Any inputs welcome.

Mahalo,

PB

[Thomas Holm]

You should upgrade. I don't think AC9 will handle anything more recent than Autocad2004, perhaps not even that. Check your docs.

[Anonymous]

Get the surveyor to resave the file in 2000 format dwg. (Or ask someone with a newer copy of AutoCAD to resave it for you.) I would have thought that should work in AC9.

Much cheaper than buying a new copy of ArchiCAD!

[Anonymous]

Patsurf,


If you are on a PC workstation you can try downloading a free copy of DWG TrueView.
Easy to convert DWG files yourself (Acad 12 <> 2008) before you import in ArchiCAD...

[Anonymous]

Peter wrote:
...Much cheaper than buying a new copy of ArchiCAD!

But is it actually cheaper to continue using 9?

I know the switch to the AC-PM unified format is a bit rough, but I think the payoff is well worth the effort, and then there is all the other stuff...

[Anonymous]

Matthew wrote:

Peter wrote:
...Much cheaper than buying a new copy of ArchiCAD!

But is it actually cheaper to continue using 9?

I know the switch to the AC-PM unified format is a bit rough, but I think the payoff is well worth the effort, and then there is all the other stuff...

True, but it would take several weeks and lots of work to get up to speed with AC12, all for the sake of opening up a survey drawing!

I wonder if it is actually possible to quantify the productivity difference between AC9 and the latest version. It would be interesting to find out! I should imagine just simple things like guidelines and integrated plotmaker must make a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Peter wrote:
I wonder if it is actually possible to quantify the productivity difference between AC9 and the latest version. It would be interesting to find out! I should imagine just simple things like guidelines and integrated plotmaker must make a big difference.

Of course my point that the upgrade would more than pay for itself, DWG issues aside. Of course if it takes a couple of hours to sort out the one DWG problem (not unlikely) that would amount to a significant chunk of the upgrade cost (at least at the billable rates around here). Transition costs are another matter of course and must be judged on a case by case basis, but upgrades are inevitable - it's only the frequency that is variable. I imagine that few, if any, are still using AC6 professionally.

It would be tough to quantify the difference since the time needed to setup and conduct meaningful benchmarks is not realistically available. I'm not about to tell my kids "Sorry I can't do that with you because I have to see just how much faster I am on this new version than the old one." Part of the point of upgrading is to have more time with my kids.

I have found though, that with each upgrade (8.0 aside) I have had no desire to return to the previous version. I am very happily doing all my projects in version 12 now (though I can't say why 😉 - NDA and all) and only use 11 to save Navis files.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for your responses!! The request to have the Topo (DWG) saved in earlier version of ACAD worked wonders. It worked for both ACAD version 2000 and 2004 ...the surveyor was using ACAD 2007, which turned out to be incompatible with AC 9.0 ...everything back in order, thanks again for the precious comments and dedication to helping others.

Re. AC upgrade, we have been looking at proceeding sometime in an undetermined future as it has implications with workflow and many other things. It has been our experience that upgrading to a new version is usually very humbug and we've paid the price dearly in the past. Our new policy is to upgrade after the first service pack.

Re. AC 12, does anyone have feedbacks so far? I see it appears PM has been integrated (aka model space/paper space sort of thing?) Beyond that, is it pretty stable? Reliable? Any weird bugs and kinks? Compatible with both Vista and XP? Compatible with the DR/WDW Builder third party library part? ...this was a major issue during a past upgrade. We use DW/WDW Builder (3.5 I believe) on ALL our projects and could not see how to operate without it at this point (actually, I still think Graphisoft should have bought the interface and included in the software a LONG time ago!). All comments on this are welcome!...

Interestingly enough, Graphisoft still advertises AC11 on their site ...is 12 only in Beta version at the moment? Or perhaps just released in the past couple weeks/months?...

Thanks again for all the help.

Aloha,

Patrick

[David Maudlin]

Patrick:

ArchiCAD 12 has not been released, but PlotMaker was integrated with version ArchiCAD 10. The rest of your questions can be addressed by searching this forum, these issues arise every time a new version is released.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David

[Anonymous]

Thanks David,

Filled up the blanks spaces, and will look more in depth for info onto the list as we will likely go through a major updgrade (computers, AC, etc...) in the not-so distant future.

Being a small firm, upgrades are always rather painful since there is always something that seems to go wrong and workflow suffers greatly, so we only go through those every so many years. Hopefully I can gather some info here that will alleviate some of the aches and pains of upgrading down the line.

Again, mahalo!