Importing AC files / survey, topo type drawings

[Anonymous]

What is the best way to import and utilize DWG surveys from the Engineers?

We are starting a new project and i want to set the base for a well functioning site plan that can be imported into multiple resident project in the future.

I have the DWG from the engineer. when i hotlink it, the cad layers populate my AC file. no good. place ext drawing automatically places it in the sheet layout and i need it in the drawing "model" space. attach xref, well, i am not sure where it went.

Any insight on what works for you would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

[Anonymous]

I usually place the DWG as a drawing to a worksheet then reference this into the plan view for tracing. I'm not sure why it's going into a layout unless that is the active window at the time or you're merging it as paperspace. of course you can still reference the layout in plan view.

[Katalin Takacs]

Usually I also recommend the same as Matthew, I think using the DWG Drawing as a Trace Reference can be good a solution for many things: it is faster, not selectable, its color can be easily set, etc.
By the way, we have collected the DWG import possibilities containing their advantages - disadvantages in this article: http://archicadwiki.com/DWG/Import