Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

importing site survey somebody?

Anonymous
Not applicable
hello all,
i'm trying to import a DWG site survey and i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be doing. i'm a bit lost when it comes to different scales in the same project. i read some stuff from this site and have no idea what it's talking about. importing it in paper space, model space maybe importing it twice in each then merging it? wtf? could someone layout the steps so i can get on with this? i'm used to thinking in Vectorworks and i can set the scale for the import, but it doesn't work the same way in AC and i'm not getting anywhere with the lit.
help please
wb
6 REPLIES 6
Ralph Wessel
Mentor
wildernessbob wrote:
hello all,
i'm trying to import a DWG site survey and i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be doing. i'm a bit lost when it comes to different scales in the same project. i read some stuff from this site and have no idea what it's talking about. importing it in paper space, model space maybe importing it twice in each then merging it? <b>[censored]</b>? could someone layout the steps so i can get on with this? i'm used to thinking in Vectorworks and i can set the scale for the import, but it doesn't work the same way in AC and i'm not getting anywhere with the lit.
help please
wb
Keep in mind that first and foremost you are building a model of the building and site in ArchiCAD, not sheets of drawings. Sheets of drawings eventually come out of the model, but they aren't your first priority.

Therefore, you don't need to think about scales until you are ready to produce sheets of drawings. The key thing is to bring the site drawing in at its real-world size. All you need is at least one known dimension in the imported drawing. Open the drawing and check if this dimension is correct, i.e. if you placed a dimension across it, the figured length would be correct. If the dimension is wrong, calculate the scaling factor to make it right and use Edit > Reshape > Resize to scale the site accordingly.

Finally, strip out everything you don't need and save the remaining drawing as a module (File > Save As). Merge that module into your main project.
Ralph Wessel BArch
Software Engineer Speckle Systems
Anonymous
Not applicable
I found clear assistance on earlier posts on this subject.
my question:
is it possible to import survey data (crd) files into model directly?
AC11, macbookpro 2.16ghz
thanks.
ben garlington
knoxville,tn
Anonymous
Not applicable
thanks ralph,
slowly, this thing is starting to make sense in my head. 20 years pushing a pencil, thinking like this is a challenge. i'll give that a go. any suggestions on calculation ratio?
wb
Ralph Wessel
Mentor
wildernessbob wrote:
any suggestions on calculation ratio?
Pick a known dimension from the site drawing.
Divide it by the length measured on the imported drawing.
The result is the scaling factor, e.g. if the length of a site boundary is 1m and the measured length is 0.5m (on the imported drawing), the scaling factor will be 2.
Ralph Wessel BArch
Software Engineer Speckle Systems
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ralph is right. If you don't want to calculate, use the resize tool.

- select the site
- click the resize tool
- use define graphically
- ( 1m boundary example ) click on the start at 0m then click again at 1m
- hit r ( for radius ) and enter 1m, hit enter done !
Anonymous
Not applicable
once again, thanks Ralph.