2d vs 3d export to DWG - and missing functionality?

SketchUp Pro
1

I’m struggling getting my landscape & architectural design information from SketchUp (2019 pro, Windows10) to the likes of Surveyors (using 12D), civil engineers (using AutoCAD Civil3d) and others. I need to regularly send digital design information out so they can measure and check things, make adjustments and send it back to me.

I’m usng DWG because it’s the most common format which works for a wide range of disciplines, viewers, etc. I dont think I can change that.

2D DWG Export is great because it only exports what’s currently visible on screen, and only in 2D, which is what the other professions typically ask for.
However, this process will explode and flatten all lines and objects onto layer zero, so the document is virtually impossible for others to use and interpret.

3D DWG export is great when I want to export literally eveything in the model in 3d. However, if the model has any detailed stuff such as furniture, vegetation, topography, 3d entourage, etc, or the file is large, then the resulting DWG is massive and bloated with unecessary things. Unhelpfully, other software (eg ACAD) is often not user-friendly when it comes to deleting layers with content on them. Most people I send files to complain that it “crashes” their computer. Sometimes the SKP > DWG export process will crash.

Exporting form LayOut isnt helpful as it takes longer and is basically the same as a 2d DWG export, with the added annoyance that it must also include the page layout.

The workaround I’ve adopted is to using 3d DWG but first to export critical information from my SKP model into a different SKP file, clean up the file (purge and delete nestedc omponents etc that I don’t need) then export that. However this isnt always simple due to the way the model can be organised (for example a component may have objects nested within it that are on invisible layers). This workaround is a multi-step process that takes time and isnt easy to repeat.

…So…
Does anyone have any other workflow tips to doing this sort of thing? Maybe some extensions I’m not aware of?

To be honest I really we should be able to quickly export a Scene or a number of selected Layers or components to DWG; as 2d or 3d file and choose whether or not we want to include layer/object heirarchies, component info (IFC classes) as well as curves, profiles, faces, materials, labels, etc. Scenes could even remember these export settings.

Is there a licensing limitation at play here which prevents the 2d/3d export options from being consistent?
Or is this a case of SketchUp trying to stay “user friendly” by eliminating all but the most basic options?
I don’t get it. :confounded:

2

My limited understanding of BIM is that drawing data should be made as interchangeable as possible so that it is easy to collaborate and avoid conflicts among the various disciplines using a common set of drawing data. However, it seems to be very much harder to implement that it is to prescribe.

I certainly wish that the whole process of importing and exporting data in the DWG format was a lot easier and reliable than it currently is.

3

Why is this? It is absolutely easy to do this as long as things are on separate layers. Acad has many built in commands to aid in this (Isolate Layer, is one that works very well for this function).

Any way that you can share a file? I’d be willing to take a look at it.

In my 24 years of using Acad professionally, I have found a vast majority of user’s problems to be operator error and NOT the program. That or using a barebone PC and expecting it to run Acad without issue.
Cheers

4

The LAYDEL command erases layers you select together with their content.

1 Like
5

Yes it does Anssi. I like to “look” at what is on the layer before I delete it but that is a good one as well :wink: