Xref vs. Place External Drawing in ArchiCad 12

[Anonymous]

New user here. I've been an AutoCad user for years. New job in an office using ArchiCad. Just curious, anyone know the advantages / disadvantages of using the "Xref" or "Place External Drawing" features for AutoCad backgrounds as external content? My understanding from the reference guide is "Place" is better. But does that allow you to control external content layers / display? Is there a previous post on the topic? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply.
Indeed this is a problem. I tried every option one by one (imported the same file six times with different settings). Exactly as per your image, but sadly with no effect.

Exploding dwg is like changing it to pdf effectively - for me this is not great, this solution as I cannot change the dwg in any way, after i explode it (or I have to explode it for Archicad, every time I change it). Apparently - I have no other choice. One is completely vulnerable when your software knows better than you what you are up for

[Eduardo Rolon]

If I understand correctly this might be an option.

What I would do is place the DWG on another AC file, explode it there and link that to my worksheet on the other file. Then instead of editing the original DWG in Autocad to Draftsight I would edit it in the linked AC file.

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The ideal solution would be for AC to have a setting for Model Text that could apply to "Placed Files".

[Laszlo Nagy]

Maybe you should create two Worksheets, set the scale of one to M 1:100 and the other to M 1:500, then place the DWG as a Drawing on each. Also, repeat this procedure for any other needed scale. It probably won't bloat up your file size considerably.

Also, since the same DWG file is the source of both, any change of the DWG file will update in both instances.

[Anonymous]

Indeed, this might be an option, but what I have discovered is surprisingly simple and effective GREAT !

What I did was:
1. Importing dwg to the story in 'Project Map' - NOT TO THE WORKSHEET !!! Set the scale of the story to 1:500 (or whatever scale you want) - the dwg is perfectly readable. Dipslays exactly as I see it in autocad and exactly how I wanted it to be displayed (btw. I use draftsight, instead of autocad - free alternative of autocad).
2. Copy and paste to the worksheet set to the same scale - 1:500. If you have a dwg from land surveyor (like myself) you are ready to go with master site plan. if you change the scale - the text on the dwg changes as well, but your desired scale (and the way the text is displayed) is at the 1:500 scale - as you wanted.

Now you have all the benefits of archicad and the way it changes the scale automatically. You can change freely the way, the dwg is displayed. The dwg is not exploded. If you modify it in any way, it gets immediately updated in beloved Archicad

Oh, I am so glad ejrolon, that I was able to show you something, you did not know All the best of luck in your professional life - thanks.

[Laszlo Nagy]

If this is what you want then I don't understand why you need to copy from Floor Plan to Worksheet?
Just set the Worksheet to M 1:500 before placing the DWG and then Text size in the DWG will be based on that scale.
Or am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

I did this at the begining and it did not work. scale 1:500 - text scaled up as per image. If I wanted it to look properly, I had to set the scale to 1:50 - 1:100.
then I did the same with the floor (set to 1:500) and it worked as I wanted. maybe I did something wrong ?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Hmm, interesting. I just don't understand why it works when you place the DWG as Drawing on the Floor Plan at M 1:500 scale, and why it doesn't work when you place the DWG as Drawing on the Worksheet at M 1:500 scale.
I am supposing that the DWG Translator settings are the same for both cases. Could this be a bug?