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About model and data exchange with 3rd party solutions: Revit, Solibri, dRofus, Bluebeam, structural analysis solutions, and IFC, BCF and DXF/DWG-based exchange, etc.

different layers for doors ext/int?

Mats_Knutsson
Advisor
Hi,
I got the question "How can I export the dwg so that doors in external walls and doors in internal walls end up in different layers in the dwg-file?".

Any clever ideas?
Cheers,
/Mats
AC 25 SWE Full

HP Zbook Fury 15,6 G8. 32 GB RAM. Nvidia RTX A3000.
10 REPLIES 10
Barry Kelly
Moderator
The doors would have to be in walls that are on different layers for internal and external in the first place before you export to DWG.
Then you will have control with the translator for what goes to what layer in the DWG.
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Thomas Holm
Booster
Barry, you can set the DWG translator to put doors and windows on separate named door/window layers (separate from the walls) in the DWG file.
However, AFAIK you cannot put doors or windows on separate layers depending on what wall layer they reside in in Archicad. Thus, your suggestion will not separate the d/w from their respective wall layers anymore.

Please correct me if I'm wrong!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Thomas wrote:
Barry, you can set the DWG translator to put doors and windows on separate named door/window layers (separate from the walls) in the DWG file.
However, AFAIK you cannot put doors or windows on separate layers depending on what wall layer they reside in in Archicad. Thus, your suggestion will not separate the d/w from their respective wall layers anymore.

Please correct me if I'm wrong!
Sorry, I wrongly assumed that doors and windows might stay in the same layer as the wall they belonged to.
My bad - I should look at the translator settings a little closer.
I don't use it very much so I was really just assuming what would happen.

Definitely you can specify the layer you want all doors and windows to go into - that is all door and all windows into particular layers.
They can't be split based on there original layer if you do this.

But if you don't specify a layer will they stay in the layer of the original wall?
This is what I assumed would happen but I haven't tested it.

Barry.
translator_02.jpg
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Actually you can. There's the "Insert Source Layer" button in the above image.
Thomas Holm
Booster
restricted wrote:
Actually you can. There's the "Insert Source Layer" button in the above image.
Thanks, restricted! I've missed that button.

And Barry, you're right that
if you don't specify a layer will they stay in the layer of the original wall
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Mats_Knutsson
Advisor
If I get it right <Insert source layer> just adds the mother layer to the window/door layer name.

In over-standardized Sweden many parties want windows on separate layers depending on what layer the wall has.

So in the exported dwg-file windows in external wall must have another layer than windows in internal walls...that is if you want to go by the book. Not everyone is so strict.

/Mats
AC 25 SWE Full

HP Zbook Fury 15,6 G8. 32 GB RAM. Nvidia RTX A3000.
Anonymous
Not applicable
For example:
If you specify the Windows layer as "<SourceLayer>" then the layer name will be exported as "InternalWall". (same layer as the walls)
But if you specify the Windows layer as "Windows-<SourceLayer>" then the layer name will be exported as "Windows-InternalWall".

And there's another option "Layer Name Conversion" in the translator settings dialog. Here you can select the "Windows-InternalWall" layer to change into any layer name you specify. So the final layer name can be whatever the name you want.
Mats_Knutsson
Advisor
Source layer doesn't work for us regarding windows/doors.

We have been using simple bylayer conversion up til now (AC14) but will change to pen-to-layer in AC15 which gives us all options. There will be more favourites (ext-win and int-win and so on) but will give total flexibility.
/Mats
AC 25 SWE Full

HP Zbook Fury 15,6 G8. 32 GB RAM. Nvidia RTX A3000.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello, I need help. I read everything about translators and I've been using ArchiCad for about 10 years now, but the translators never seemed to work right.
Now, i am trying to publish some files as DWG and the layer translation doesn't work for me. Every time I open the file in Autocad the doors are still on the A-EWALL layer (the wall layer) not the custom assigned A_DOOR layer.

What am I doing wrong?
Thank you.