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dwg import loses all data point position info
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epicycloid  
#1 Posted : Friday, September 22, 2023 11:59:50 AM(UTC)
epicycloid

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Can anyone offer import suggestions for dwg files with data points?

We had a surveyor go do elevation points on a lot, and he emailed the file, as an exported dwg (also as a Civil3D file, but that didn't work either).

When I imported the dwg, it piled all the data points at the origin, or at least that's what it looks like to me. See attached screen shot.

A friend with AutoCAD LT was able to import the data just fine. See other attached image.

Original file is attached, if someone can tell me what might work to import with the data points, lines and text intact.

Thanks,

--Jon
File Attachment(s):
ACAD-23-487 BASEMAP.dwg (966kb) downloaded 10 time(s).
ElevScreen2.jpg (656kb) downloaded 9 time(s).
Imported Elevations_v2.pdf (238kb) downloaded 11 time(s).

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      --Jon

SharkCAD Pro – V14 (aka 14.1.0 = WIP 1641 or 1645 or 1654)
16" MacBook Pro – M2 Pro – MacOS Ventura 13.6.7
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UGMENTALCASE  
#2 Posted : Friday, September 22, 2023 2:36:15 PM(UTC)
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Dwg import did this on the last version I use many years ago. I'd be tempted to change the dwg to a txt file or is it .dat in viacad (can't remember) one of them will bring in points properly
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24c  
#3 Posted : Friday, September 22, 2023 3:40:45 PM(UTC)
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@epicycloid

I did use eDrawings on macOS and was able to see a lot of "sheets" with some info displayed, not like your .pdf to be honest, which suggests the Import function within ViaCAD isn't interpreting these properly.
I also imported the file into SharKCAD and did see this outline within



Mike
24c attached the following image(s):
Screenshot 2023-09-22 at 22.39.24.png (238kb) downloaded 2 time(s).

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MPSchmied  
#4 Posted : Saturday, September 23, 2023 6:31:04 AM(UTC)
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I removed all irrelevant data from the file, ungrouped all groups, and copied the remaining content to a new drawing, because the 'compact file' function didn't work, the file size remained at 11 MB.
File Attachment(s):
ACAD-23-487 BASEMAP.sfx (194kb) downloaded 6 time(s).

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OS: Windows 10 | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 | RAM: 32 GB | Graphic: AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 | Shark FX 9 Build 1162 | Unit: mm
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24c on 9/23/2023(UTC), epicycloid on 9/23/2023(UTC)
24c  
#5 Posted : Saturday, September 23, 2023 10:38:05 AM(UTC)
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Well done @MPScmied. Very interesting workflow and workaround.

Mike

macOS 14.3.1 (Sonoma) - MacBook M1 Max 64GB 2TB SSD & external display - SharkCAD Pro v14.1.0 build 1654
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epicycloid  
#6 Posted : Saturday, September 23, 2023 11:26:37 AM(UTC)
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Thank you both for those insights!

First off, I am surprised that my lowly ViaCAD 2D/3D license let me open MPSchmied's .sfx file! That was a surprise, and when I first saw the file extension I figured I'd be asking him to re-post in a different format.

Secondly, I am impressed that that process worked, and produced essentially what my friend's AutoCAD LT import did.

Now I need to see if I can repeat his workflow and obtain the same results...

@MPSchmied -- Did you remove the irrelevant data and do the ungrouping in Shark, or in a text editor, or???

@24c / Mike -- I was able to see the lines, albeit on two different planes, one of which was at the elevation (~54x' up in Z). And I also have three vertical lines projecting up when I viewed in 3D. Their lengths were in the ~540' range, which corresponds to the actual elevations on the lot. Attached is the 3D view of what I saw on my first import attempt.

Cheers,

--Jon
epicycloid attached the following image(s):
ElevScreen.jpg (192kb) downloaded 0 time(s).

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      --Jon

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16" MacBook Pro – M2 Pro – MacOS Ventura 13.6.7
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MPSchmied  
#7 Posted : Saturday, September 23, 2023 12:00:31 PM(UTC)
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I opened the file in TurboCAD and then converted it to an older DWG format. I then opened this exported file with SharkFX. As it was very slow to respond and contained many unnecessary data, I deleted all the non-essential data using SharkFX. However, I'm not familiar with how to make such changes directly in a text editor.

Impressive is, this points are in 3D, they have real hights :)

Edited by user Saturday, September 23, 2023 12:08:29 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

OS: Windows 10 | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 | RAM: 32 GB | Graphic: AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 | Shark FX 9 Build 1162 | Unit: mm
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epicycloid on 9/23/2023(UTC)
epicycloid  
#8 Posted : Saturday, September 23, 2023 12:14:45 PM(UTC)
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@MPSchmied -- Thanks for the details. Sounds very convoluted. I'll do further experiments. It is very odd that something in the file / grouping, overrides all the data point positions. I'm looking at the file now, with various info on many, many layers. Some is obviously the company's paper "templates" but the guy who created the file added some notes in very strange places / layers, that were stripped out of your version. Very tedious, to say the least.

It was weird that only a few of the points had heights associated with them. If they all had heights, I would have made a 3D model to print for the entire terrain.

At this point, I did get the data I needed out of the file import, so the question is mostly academic. But a better understanding of what does and doesn't work, especially with dwg / dxf imports and exports, is critical to working with others and exchanging files.

The horrible import / export is one of the things that finally made me move off of Ashlar's Graphite / Vellum, that I used for 30+ years. That and their inability to open / import .pdf's too.

Cheers,

Edited by user Saturday, September 23, 2023 12:18:38 PM(UTC)  | Reason: add comment.

      --Jon

SharkCAD Pro – V14 (aka 14.1.0 = WIP 1641 or 1645 or 1654)
16" MacBook Pro – M2 Pro – MacOS Ventura 13.6.7
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MPSchmied on 9/24/2023(UTC)
epicycloid  
#9 Posted : Saturday, September 23, 2023 12:46:01 PM(UTC)
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Well, I just installed and tried an import with Tim's latest update, WIP 1641. He listed some import fixes in the changes, and one sort of seems to have fixed the cluster of elevation data points, that in the last version I was using WIP 1638, were all imported on top of the origin (see image in post above).

Just to show what this new import looked like, and why it was confusing to me, here are three views of what I got when I did a raw import...

_3Clusters.pdf -- This is an overview of where the visible objects came in, in relative space, a bunch of stuff near the origin, a black blob up and to the right, and way off to the upper right, the lines associated with the drawing.

_BlackBlobCloseup -- This is a zoom in on the "black blob" just above and to the right of the origin, it contains the elevation text that was the primary content of the file. For whatever reason, the update to this WIP was able to move the data points off the origin, and show them as they were in the original dwg file.

_OriginCloseup.pdf -- This is zoomed in at the origin (compare to post above showing stated text), and shows the many objects and layers that the company uses for their various paper-size templates. Some text notes were clearly added to one of those layers (probably by mistake) and at an odd text size.

Again, this I mostly academic, and trying to understand what does or doesn't work with dwg / dxf imports and exports.

Cheers,
File Attachment(s):
_3Clusters.pdf (23kb) downloaded 3 time(s).
_BlackBlobCloseup.pdf (53kb) downloaded 4 time(s).
_OriginCloseup.pdf (129kb) downloaded 4 time(s).

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      --Jon

SharkCAD Pro – V14 (aka 14.1.0 = WIP 1641 or 1645 or 1654)
16" MacBook Pro – M2 Pro – MacOS Ventura 13.6.7
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thanks 2 users thanked epicycloid for this useful post.
MPSchmied on 9/24/2023(UTC), GARLIC on 9/25/2023(UTC)
posh.de  
#10 Posted : Monday, September 25, 2023 9:16:59 AM(UTC)
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DWG is the binary format and therefore cannot be edited with a text editor, if you are required to do this get a DXF (ASCII) instead.

You may want check too, if DXF/DWG files with issues can be improved by converting them with the free ODA Drawings Explorer (= the DXF/DWG engine Shark/ViaCAD is using) to the DXF/DWG version 2000 (regulalrly suffiicient for transfering the relevant stuff and no Autodesk special entities other software cannot cope with).

Additionally you can evaluate and convert the content w/o using other CAD systems which might impose new issues to the data.
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