DWG file import---> problems (no lines at all)

[Anonymous]

I received a drawing from the consultant engineer but I miss to open it on both Archicad and PlotMaker (no lines visible).
I tried the different options (ModelSpace, Paperspace with empty viewports, etc), with no visible results.
However I am able to view it with eDrawings (Solid Works dwg viewer), but there are no export options available.
The .dwg file is 1,4 Mb so I can not enclose it. What am I doing wrong?

Jaime Neto
Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

Archicad 9.0.0 v1 Int | PlotMaker 9.0.0 v1 Int | Apple PowerBook G4 1Gb Ram |

[Thomas Holm]

I don't know really. A guess is that it's too big (it covers too big an area) -- try setting the DWGUNIT=1mm and check again. If possible, contact the creator to see what's in it. Set pens as KeepIndexNumbers.

Don't xref it - instead set up an empty Archicad .pln file (also erase the whole layer list) with scale 1:1000 and Merge the dwg into this file.

Then check the layer list again, turn ON all layers (some might be off) and zoom to extents.

If this works, save the file as a .mod and Hotlink it into your project.

[Anonymous]

You can try zipping it and then it might be small enough to post. If not, post a screenshot of what you see in AC and what you see in edrawings viewer.

Are there any xrefs in the dwg?

The hint Thomas gave is a good one. When you think there is nothing there try CTRL-A to select all elements. Do you see anything highlighted? This happens often with Civil Engineering drawings in my experience due to the way they use coordinates.

[Eduardo Rolon]

When drawing in AutoCAD if you are not carefull and insert blocks, hatches or data from another drawing you can get drawing elements that are miles or kilometers apart. When you merge that file then it will look as if there is nothing there in AC since you are looking at your drawing basically from Mars. The most likely culprits are hatches (fills in AC) and nodes (hotspots) since in AutoCAD you can draw a hatch that has its origin at 0,0,0 and it is placed 100,000 units away from that origin. If this is the case doing a select all will show that you have objects in AC but the zoom is too far away to see them.
Possible solutions are to select all fills and erase them and doing the same for hotspots. Keep doing a zoom extents and select all to see where the drawing is located until you find the object that is too far away.

[Anonymous]

Eric wrote:
You can try zipping it and then it might be small enough to post. If not, post a screenshot of what you see in AC and what you see in edrawings viewer.

Are there any xrefs in the dwg?

The hint Thomas gave is a good one. When you think there is nothing there try CTRL-A to select all elements. Do you see anything highlighted? This happens often with Civil Engineering drawings in my experience due to the way they use coordinates.

I am so sorry for beeing ignorant in so many important things, but...:
—how does one make a screenshot in MacOsX 3.9?
— How does one find Xrefs in the .dwg?
I have tried to select all elements but I do not see anything highlighted.
Thank you for your insightful replies.

Jaime Neto
Archicad 9.0.0 | PlotMaker 9.0.0 | Apple PowerBook G4 | MacOsX 3.9

[Thomas Holm]

Jaime wrote:
—how does one make a screenshot in MacOsX 3.9?

Whole screen: Command (Apple)-shift-3
Crosshair for selection: Command-Shift-4

Also, check translator settings, and try following intstructions (previous posts) to the letter. Then report back.

[Anonymous]

"Eric Batte" wrote:
You can try zipping it and then it might be small enough to post. If not, post a screenshot of what you see in AC and what you see in edrawings viewer.]

I am posting a screenshot of Archicad (empty, no lines).

There are no visible layers on the Archicad file (with the exception the Archicad layer).

Jaime Neto
Archicad 9.0.0 | PlotMaker 9.0.0 | PowerBook G4, 1 GB Ram

[Eduardo Rolon]

Download eDrawing

www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edrawings/eDrawings.html

and open the AutoCAD file with it to see if it is really empty. You can try also to open it in SketchUp or Illustrator.

[Thomas Holm]

Jaime wrote:
There are no visible layers on the Archicad file (with the exception the Archicad layer).

Mysterious.
- have you succeeded in importing any DWGs any time before?

- Check with the sender that the file isn't saved in a later Autocad DWG version than 2004. I don't think 2006 works in AC9.

- You might have changed some setting that doesn't work. Try doing a New and Reset to get Archicad back to it's default settings. Then use the File>Open command to open the DWG file with the default translator.

- Archicad and PM only import 2D dwgs with layers. I could guess (never tried it) that a 3D-only DWG would give this result. But 3D-only DWGs are scarce.

- To import 3D content from a DWG file, you need to import it as an object. Try that (it's explained in the docs). You will lose the layers, but should get all other content.

If nothing works, you need professional support. Contact your reseller.

[Anonymous]

Thomas wrote:

Jaime wrote:
There are no visible layers on the Archicad file (with the exception the Archicad layer).

Mysterious.
- have you succeeded in importing any DWGs any time before?

- Check with the sender that the file isn't saved in a later Autocad DWG version than 2004. I don't think 2006 works in AC9.
(...) If nothing works, you need professional support. Contact your reseller.

Ok! Thank you all for your kind replies.
After contacting the Engineer who has sent me the file (Autocad 14)...
... after much trial with diferent types of software ('e-drawings'; 'Canvas') ...I finally solved the puzzling question about why Archicad 9.0 could not open the .dwg file:
— it has to do with the long name and probably the hyphen character (the original file name was 'ESTRUTURA2001-Mamede.dwg').
I changed the file name to 'ESTRUTURAS' and now it opens easily and with no problems whatsoever.
I hope this information can be useful to the Archicad comunity.

Jaime Neto | Archicad 9.0.0, 2045 Int Full | PlotMaker 9.0.0 2045 INT Full | PowerBook G4, 1GB Ram