Dimension / Scale Problem

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm new here and I have some problems working with ArchiCad.
I have imported a AutoCad file that appears to be 1000 times smaller. I have tried to rescale or redimension it but i can't.... can anyone help me please?

Alex

[Thomas Holm]

Ask the sender what size his DWGUNIT is set to.
(If metric, it's usually 1mm or 1m, if U.S., 1 inch or 1 foot)
Then set the DWGUNIT like that in Archicad's translator BEFORE importing.

Some additional tips here:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=67258&highlight=#67258

[Anonymous]

Thanks for replying! I'm the sender... I had the file in Acad and now I want to do a 3D model in Archicad, but the problem is that I have changed the units from m to mm and still i haven't seen any difference! I'm using Archicad9, can this be related to the bug you wrote about, in the post you recommended me?

[Anonymous]

A dont know if it is a survey you are talking about but IME most surveys are done in metres rather than the mm that we all use (well apart from the US that is!). I dont know why surveyors always work in metres - just being difficult I guess.

All I do is usually scale down the survey by 0.001 which is the easiest way to sort the problem. If you cant rescale the drawing check that the layers arent locked or that it isnt a large block or something - try exploding it and ungrouping first.

You should then really start a new drawing and merge the properly scaled survey into it - as I never work on another persons drawings - otherwise you'll end up with loads of rogue layers, loads of filters you can never get rid of, visual artifacts etc. By starting a new drg and merging the survey into it you know you are beginning on a good solid basis in terms of layers etc. I personally then usually go through and relayer the whole survey drawing to suit my own layering preferences. And you'll probably need to sort out all the text sizes as well - you have to be careful if they are related to spot heights in case you alter the position of the levels when scaling the text, although usually the spot heights are marked by a separate cross symbol.

Only then can you probably start to work on it as a site plan!! It used to take me a full day to get a survey drg sorted for me to use in AutoCAD - dont know if ArchCAD is better at this kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

I've found how to do it, anyway thanks for your help. Here it goes:

Tools - Configure Translator - and then change from mm to m. And then import the file. It worked with me.

[andrewzarb]

Sometimes changing the settings in the translator doesn't pay off so quickly, often when importing a DWG into an ArchiCAD drawing with a different scale to what the original was drawing in.

A simple solution which often works is to use the resize command (CTRL+K) if you know the dimension of something you can scale in the drawing you can just trace over it and then enter the dimension it should be.

Nats is right about rogue layers but I don't believe in redoing something that's alrerady been done, so I open the DWG as a new drawing, change all the attributes, Attribute manager is very handy, then when it's ready I can merge it into my project. The dozens of layers that surveyors use can usually be satisfactorily whittled down or merged to a couple.

I'm also a campaigner against all those odd line types I don't need, using find and select (CTRL+F) I can get those managed as well.

Happy merging

[Anonymous]

andrewzarb wrote:
...The dozens of layers that surveyors use can usually be satisfactorily whittled down or merged to a couple.

Dozens? The surveyors you know must be very frugal with their layers. I have seen civil drawings with well in excess of one hundred.

If you only need the survey as a reference you can also place it as a drawing (in AC10). That way there are no layers (or linetypes etc.) added to the project attributes, and you can easily rescale it.

[Thomas Holm]

areffoios wrote:
I've found how to do it, anyway thanks for your help. Here it goes:

Tools - Configure Translator - and then change from mm to m. And then import the file. It worked with me.

You're welcome! That's exactly what I meant.

[Thomas Holm]

areffoios wrote:
Thanks for replying! I'm the sender... I had the file in Acad and now I want to do a 3D model in Archicad, but the problem is that I have changed the units from m to mm and still i haven't seen any difference! I'm using Archicad9, can this be related to the bug you wrote about, in the post you recommended me?

You already found the solution, but just so you know, that bug only affects dwgs EXPORTED from Archicad. If applicable, they will scale wrongly in Autocad. This is a bit special, seems to only affect certain configs where the Autocadder has a (global?) INSUNIT (setting) which is different from his DWGUNIT, and it's easy to fix if you're fluent in Autocaddish. I'm not.

The problem is in effect that the Archicad 9 exporter doesn't set the INSUNITS parameter correctly - it should be set like the DWGUNITS.

GS has essentially told me Archicad 9 is orphaned in this respect. The bug won't be fixed there, but is in AC10.

[Barry Kelly]

Matthew wrote:

andrewzarb wrote:
...The dozens of layers that surveyors use can usually be satisfactorily whittled down or merged to a couple.

Dozens? The surveyors you know must be very frugal with their layers. I have seen civil drawings with well in excess of one hundred.

If you only need the survey as a reference you can also place it as a drawing (in AC10). That way there are no layers (or linetypes etc.) added to the project attributes, and you can easily rescale it.

Layers can sure be a problem.
Another option is to open the survey in another instance of Archicad and then transfer everything into the Archicad layer.
Grouping everything together also helps.
Then copy and place the survey into your real job file and transfer to what ever layer you want it to be in.

If you want the survey to be at a certain scale (say 1:200) then before you open the survey, open any file and set the scale to 1:200 then close the file leaving Archicad running.
Now open the survey and it will come in at this scale with all the text set to the correct size for this scale.

As you discovered the units in the translator settings affects whether the survey comes in at the correct size or not.
You can resize it but just as easy to close and re-open with the translator units set properly.

Barry.