is exploding dxf blocks necessary

[Rick Thompson]

A client is finding to work on a set of my converted plans in Autocad they are having to explode the "blocks" which means it might be quicker to redraw them than to alter them... so that's not good. He is not an autocad master, so he might be missing something. I was using the basic default translator into autocad 200

Any suggestions I can pass his way?

thanks

this are his comments

Hi Rick,

I need to ask a favor. The drawings for each floor plan are coming in as "blocks" that are inserted on the plan sheet (not sure if the term "block" is a Archicad term or is used only by Autocad). So for example, the SHEET 2 BASEMENT.DXF is composed of 10 separate "block references", of which PLACED_DRAWING_7 is the block for the basement floor plan. I don't have the original files for these blocks, which makes it very difficult to make new dimensions on the drawings from the plan sheet. I am hoping that you could export one or two of the original floor plans to DWG or DFX format so I can test to see if the original block data will work. If it does work, I would only need individual floor plan and elevation files, not all the detail and layout files

[Djordje]

Rick wrote:
A client is finding to work on a set of my converted plans in Autocad they are having to explode the "blocks" which means it might be quicker to redraw them than to alter them... so that's not good. He is not an autocad master, so he might be missing something. I was using the basic default translator into autocad 200

Publish to DWG the views from ArchiCAD, not from PlotMaker. He will also get circles as circles (in the plans), dimensions as dimensions, etc.

As he said, he does not need the layout, just plans sections elevations.

HTH,

[Rick Thompson]

That would be a good feature of Plotmaker to save the same way... but I guess that's a big deal to do. Realizing this will mean a lot more work for me to actually provide usable files for my stock plan clients who pay good money for something they can use. I guess I need to save the Plotmaker file, and all the AC views (plans views at least) so they can make changes to the plans, which is why they buy CAD files. ug...

thanks for the quick response Djordje

[Karl Ottenstein]

Djordje wrote:
Publish to DWG the views from ArchiCAD, not from PlotMaker. He will also get circles as circles (in the plans), dimensions as dimensions, etc.

Of course, then his section markers all say PMAshNo or something silly instead of mentioning the proper drawing and sheet number...

Nothing's perfect...

Karl

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:

Djordje wrote:
Of course, then his section markers all say PMAshNo or something silly instead of mentioning the proper drawing and sheet number...

The Placeholders can be turned off in the Section/Elevation dialogue box under the Marker tab (see picture) but as Karl said... it still won't show the drawing and sheet number.

Woody

[Karl Ottenstein]

woodster wrote:
The Placeholders can be turned off in the Section/Elevation dialogue box under the Marker tab (see picture) but as Karl said... it still won't show the drawing and sheet number.

Right ... but if you turn them off, then your exports from AC may look "OK" (although no numbers), but your prints from PlotMaker now also have no numbers and are not usable....you have to go back and change all of those settings for all markers again... floor by floor, section by section (detail markers), etc.

As I said, no perfect solution that works for all requirements.

Karl

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Right ... but if you turn them off, then your exports from AC may look "OK" (although no numbers), but your prints from PlotMaker now also have no numbers and are not usable....you have to go back and change all of those settings for all markers again... floor by floor, section by section (detail markers), etc.

As I said, no perfect solution that works for all requirements.

Wasn't disagreeing, Karl.

[Djordje]

Karl wrote:

woodster wrote:
The Placeholders can be turned off in the Section/Elevation dialogue box under the Marker tab (see picture) but as Karl said... it still won't show the drawing and sheet number.

Right ... but if you turn them off, then your exports from AC may look "OK" (although no numbers), but your prints from PlotMaker now also have no numbers and are not usable....you have to go back and change all of those settings for all markers again... floor by floor, section by section (detail markers), etc.

As I said, no perfect solution that works for all requirements.

Karl

I can't see why the placed drawings from PlotMaker come as blocks; even when you explode them, they explode in a rather crazy way. And, the sizes are HUGE - and average computer cannot handle that.

Still looking for a viable DWG Out on PlotMaker ...