!Restored: AutoCad pen import???

[Anonymous]

Can I import a pen tablet from AutoCad? Architects send me drawings, I do some work and send them back. I want to make them look the same to them. Do I have to go through and set each pen to match theirs?

[fuzzytnth3]

When you save a AutoCAD dwg from your ArchiCAD plan you can choose whether the pen colours should use just the ArchiCAD pen numbers or if it should save using the closest matching AutoCAD pen number.

When you save a dwg in the dialogue box that appears there is an Expert button, when you click this you will see more options one of which is Match AutoCAD colour table

I prefer to not match AutoCAD colour table as it throws the pen numbers all over the place if the consultant sends the dwg back to you. Also if I was on the receiving end I wouldn't be happy having to set up a new PC2 file to sort out the colours and weights of the pens.

Much simplier to deselect Match AutoCAD colour table and then Pen 1 in ArchiCAD is Pen 1 in AutoCAD. So then it doesn't matter what colour you use in ArchiCAD

Below is a link to some tips I did for a mate new to ArchiCAD

http://homepage.mac.com/fuzzytnth3/fuzzyblogs/tips/C1514112824/E1672874440/index.html

[fuzzytnth3]

Other thing to look at is Attribute Manager with this command you can convert an imported AutoCAD dwg pen colours to ArchiCAD standard colours or even to match custom set of colours. I've attached an attribute file that we use to correct pen colours on mass when importing AutoCAD dwgs.

Of course if you use the Expert option when you import the AutoCAD dwg then you can avoid the hassle as described in my earlier post.

[Anonymous]

Thanks fuzz, I downloaded your file. What I ended up doing is importing the file into ArchiCad and I opened the AutoCad penset file the Architect sent to me on my laptop next to me. Then I went down the list of pens in Attributes Manager and reset the pen size of the pens being used. The nice thing was ArchiCad would put a check mark next to each pen that is used, so I could see that the Architect was only using about 15 or 20 pens, so I only had to edit those pens he was using. It took about 10 minutes or so and then I saved the file to my hardrive, so if ever I need to import more drawings from him I can just overwrite the pen set into Attributes Manager and keep going. I also bookmarked your page you sent your friend to help us out also, lots of great information!

Thanks

Steve Ericsson
Olympia, Washington