Placed DWG Linetype Scale

[Lingwisyer]

Hi all,

How do you get linetypes to scale properly. I have a dashed line which is coming in as a static 3mm/1mm model length which at any reasonable drawing scale becomes a solid line... And the drawing of the lines using a circle centered on the dash ends eats up the gaps even more...

Ling.

ps. Was sure I had come across this before, but I have spent way too long searching the forum only getting results about exporting and failed linetype conversion...

[Mathias Jonathan]

What about line type mapping in the dawg translator?

[Lingwisyer]

The lines get converted but are still set to Model Size. Importing as an Xref instead of an External Drawing, the line types get a listing that I can edit to be scale to Paper Size, but I do not want all of the layers and other attributes...

[Barry Kelly]

Yes, I set up a translator for one of our surveyors that swapped their line types for something similar to what I have in our template.

From memory I did have to set up some new line types that mimicked theirs.

Barry.

[Lingwisyer]

So, I tried replacing the lines with a duplicated type that was 100x the dash length and spacing, and it shows the "correct linetype" on selection in the dialogue, but presents the identically as before... Instead of showing name.dwg|Dashed it shows name.dwg|ACAD Dashed so it is replacing, but the line definition does not match the one in the file. The definition does not actually change, and it is set to "model size" rather than "paper size". You cannot check any of this either when placing the DWG as a Drawing rather than an XRef...

[alexliz]

I seem to suffer from the same issue (I think - correct me if I'm wrong).

In my .dwg on AutoCAD LT 2026 on Windows 11 I have some lines with Linetype set to 'DASHDOT' with Linetype scale set to 50.

In my Archicad 29 INT I have set up the DXF-DWG Translator to use a conversion line to convert 'DASHDOT' from AutoCAD into 'NONEXISTENTLINE' with LTScale set to 500 in Archicad (I named it 'NONEXISTENTLINE' because I have not created it yet in my .pln, allowing the translator to handle it all).

I import the .dwg one, the line displays nearly as solid, unless you REALLY zoom in to it.

I then adjust the translator so that LTScale is 0.2 (instead of 500). I re-import the same .dwg and compare the two imported lines, from the first and and the second imports.

They are identical.

What am I doing wrong? Or do you think it's a bug?

[alexliz]

Also: I have set up the DWG Translator (in Attributes > Layers > Layer name conversion) to place elements which are in Layer 0 in the .dwg file to a newly created layer in the .pln file (which I've named '*AutoCAD LT 2026 Layer 0') but these elements keep ending up in the Archicad layer, instead.

Any tips at all? It seems that I can't impose much of the behavior rules I stipulate within the DWG Translator.

EDIT: It seems that the layer allocation *does* work, but not when it comes to AutoCAD's Layer 0. I just tried it with sending another layer's elements to '*AutoCAD LT 2026 Layer 0' and it is working. I still haven't resolved the issue with Linetype handling, though.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I think you misunderstand something.

There is no such thing as creating a Line Type-to-Line Type conversion where you do not specify the Archicad Line Type.

You always specify an Archicad Line Type to which the specified DWG Line Type will be converted.

 

The DWG import will create a Line Type in Archicad only if the DWG file contains a Line Type for which there is no Line Type-Line Type Conversion rule specified in the DWG Translator used for the import. So, the DWG import takes all line types found in the DWG, then checks which ones have a conversion rule, and will generate Archicad line types only the rest.

[Laszlo Nagy]

What we know for sure is that the "Archicad Layer" Layer in Archicad, and the "0" Layer in AutoCAD/DWG are special layers that always exist and cannot be deleted.

I tested this and it seems to me that no Layer Name Conversion rule works on the DWG "0" Layer on DWG Import; it is always converted to the "Archicad Layer" Layer. What confirmed this to me is that:

1. I create a Layer Name Conversion rule to convert the "0" DWG Layer to "000000" in Archicad.

2. When I start importing the DWG, a Layer Dialog appears that lets me select which DWG Layers I want to import. The "0" Layer is the first on the list.

3. When the DWG Import is finished, I check the Layers and there is no "000000" Layer created (so the Layer Name Conversion did not work on the "0" DWG Layer), but at the same time, there is no "0" Layer either, and what was on the "0" Layer in the DWG file is now on the "Archicad Layer" Layer in Archicad.

I tried this with DWG Export as well: the "Archicad Layer" Layer does not convert to anything, and in the generated DWG file, what was on the "Archicad Layer" Layer in Archicad is now on the "0" Layer.

So, I think it is safe to say that the "Archicad Layer" Layer and the "0" Layer always convert to each other back and forth and Layer Name Conversion rules have no effect on them.

I will talk to the guys at GS HQ who wrote the Help file so it can be amended with this information (after verification, of course).