Importing dwg details into ArchiCAD 12

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am a relatively new user and have had some difficulty controlling the appearance of dwg files after import into ArchiCAD 12. I am placing them into a worksheet prior to placing the view on a sheet. I have made a translator to address lineweight / linetype / etc. issues. However, the only time ArchiCAD asks to use the dwg translator is when I attach as an xref (in which case the font is substituted badly and leaders are funky). Merge creates some odd vector artifacts that are somewhat unselectable in ArchiCAD. When I "Place External Drawing, ArchiCAD only prompts for drawing units and doesn't use the translator. Any advice? I've been crunching on this one for a couple of days and found Laszlo's articles very helpful. Just missing this last bit.

[Erika Epstein]

Diego,
If I understand you correctly you want to bring in a dwg to be placed on a layout sheet. You can do this skipping the step of placing it first in a worksheet window and placing it directly on a layout.
Open the layout window you want to place it on.
Follow Laszlo's steps to place an external drawing. This method places the DWG retaining its lineweights so there is no need to adjust them in archicad. This method has the added benefit of not bringing in the DWG's attributes messing up your archicad ones.
HTH

I missed in your title that these are DETAILS. Bring them in and place them in the Detail windows. There is no appreciable difference between detail and worksheet windows, it's just tidy to put details in detail windows and use worksheets for the rest. This will allow you create live links for placed detail references in your plans, sections and elevations.

If you want to be bringing them in as linework, then I would do this first in a separate file. File>Merge or place the external drawing and explode it. Change the layers to your archicad layers. Even easier you can just put them all on the archicad layer itself as elements in detail and worksheet windows will not affect the model.

Change all the autocad attributes (lines, fills, etc) to archicad ones. You can set up a translator to do this but keep in mind they are only as successful as how dedicated the original draftspeople were in autocad to use the correct pens, layers etc.
When your details have been archicadized then copy and paste them into the appropriate detail windows.
If you do this in archicad then you need to edit out all the layers, fills etc from your file to not mess up your archicad standards.

[Laura Yanoviak]

Erika wrote:
If I understand you correctly you want to bring in a dwg to be placed on a layout sheet. You can do this skipping the step of placing it first in a worksheet window and placing it directly on a layout.
Open the layout window you want to place it on.
Follow Laszlo's steps to place an external drawing. This method places the DWG retaining its lineweights so there is no need to adjust them in archicad. This method has the added benefit of not bringing in the DWG's attributes messing up your archicad ones.
HTH

This is by far the best way to bring in DWG details into AC (as long as they don't need further editing).

Erika wrote:
I missed in your title that these are DETAILS. Bring them in and place them in the Detail windows.

Just follow the same steps as above, but place the DWG in the Detail window with the Drawing Tool.

Erika wrote:
If you want to be bringing them in as linework, then I would do this first in a separate file [emphasis added]. File>Merge or place the external drawing and explode it. Change the layers to your archicad layers. Even easier you can just put them all on the archicad layer [emphasis added] itself as elements in detail and worksheet windows will not affect the model.

Change all the autocad attributes (lines, fills, etc) to archicad ones. You can set up a translator to do this but keep in mind they are only as successful as how dedicated the original draftspeople were in autocad to use the correct pens, layers etc.
When your details have been archicadized then copy and paste them into the appropriate detail windows.
If you do this in archicad then you need to edit out all the layers, fills etc from your file to not mess up your archicad standards.

If you need to bring the DWG into AC as linework, it is FAR better to get rid of all non-standard Attributes PRIOR to bringing the file into AC.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Thanks for the fast reply from both of you. I've been trying to get this done on the quick but realize it will probably create more problems later. We have been putting off converting our detail library to ArchiCAD due to time / budget concerns.

I also read in a previous post that the issue of translation in the "Place External Drawing" is a reported bug for ArchiCAD 12.

I'll let you know how it goes and if anything else come up. Thank you once again for your help.