NEED HELP WITH DWG TRANSLATOR!

[Anonymous]

Can one of you please help me. I have been a full time ArchiCAD user for the past four years. During that time I have tried to use the DWG/DXF Translator many times with limited sucess, to say the least. Three years ago, Graphisoft Tech Support basically said they didn't know how to solve my problem, but when 9 came out, it should fix it. I bought 9 and I have the same problems. I have sent emails to Tech Support, but haven't received any responses. I have spoken with and emailed my local ArchiCAD rep, but have gotten no response.
Now, I HAVE TO figure out how to make it work, as I will be colaborating with two other draftsmen who use AutoCAD. I have set up translators, but nothing changes. The fonts always default to RomanS, or Simplex, I have to make sure all fonts are set to "Fixed" rather than "Scaled" or they become huge on export. Today, I spent several hours trying to attach details downloaded from a website in dwg to my drawing. I set up a translator to convert each layer, each pen color and font. But when I attach the details, they have exactly the same attributes as they did in AutoCAD. What am I doing wrong? Will someone help me solve the vexing problem at last? Graphisoft doesn't seem to want to.
Thanks in advance,

[Thomas Holm]

Lee,

I'm sorry, but your help request is simply too big and unspecific for me. I will have to advice you to check out the docs, the ArchiGuide, the ArchicadWiki etc. You'll have to come up with specific problems if you want this forum to give worthwhile help. At least, platform, system and version info is needed.

Some general advice though:

- Set up translators separately for import and export, and don't confuse them. Name them accordingly. Some settings are easily confused, but may work only one way. Separate translators make it easier to handle.

- If possible, use the same font set on both systems. If you're on the Mac, you may know that Windows TrueType fonts (.ttf) work just as well as the Mac ones in OSX. All you need to do is to get the Windows Autocad fonts from the Autocad user. Also, get autocad's own .shx fonts and put in a shx folder for Archicad to access during translation.

- Keep Index Number pen translation is easiest to handle, but requires you to use number-compatible pen sets on both systems. I do. Saves a lot of trouble.

- When importing into Archicad, to get full control, it's best to import dwgs by Merge into an empty document (.pln file). Use the Attribute Manager to empty attributes, especially the layer list, before importing. Then save this document as a Module to hot-link into your main project.

- Before importing, if you know the set scale of the dwg file in advance, set the scale of the Floor plan in Archicad accordingly, and the fonts will import at their correct size.

- Sometimes import works better by drag-and-drop from the Finder into the empty document. This should be the same on Windows.

- In AC9 DWG export there is an INSUNITS bug - this parameter can't be set in the translator, and will have to be checked in Autocad if it's something else than the expected. I'm told this should work fine in AC10, but I haven't been able to do specific tests.

- Upgrade to AC10. Especially the handling of ModelSpace vs. PaperSpace is much improved, thanks to the integration of the Layouts into Archicad (no more Plotmaker).

The above is half an hour of typing. You get it for free.

[Anonymous]

Lee,

I have a solution for the font conversion to AutoCAD. It sounds like AutoCAD is subsituting Romans for every font it can not find. And those font styles in AutoCAD probably look like this... GENERATED_STYLE_1, GENERATED_STYLE_2, GENERATED_STYLE_3, and so on.

You may want to open the DWG in AutoCAD, and run the STYLE command to check the style names.

So I loaded up my translator with "Generated_Style_1 through "Generated_Style_40", mapped them all to the font style I needed, and it fixed the problem.