1st post.
Playing around with importing ACA (3D autocad architecture) drawing EXPORTED to 2000. I can see the 3D drawing in sketchup and can manipulate layers etc.
Sinks (as example) as ACA 3D objects act like components but my doors and windows for some reason do not (but they are ACA objects as well).
Any idea why?
I typically don’t model the complete building in ACA but do insert the 3d windows and doors into the model and was hoping I could figure out a way to use some of this info in Sketchup to help generate a faster model from my ACA plans.
Anybody think that this could make sense some how because I’m not sure. Right now just experimenting/ trying to get familiar with this software.
Hi @greenhorn
See these help articles:
Importing and Exporting CAD Files — SketchUp Help
Does SketchUp Support Layers? — SketchUp Help
Probably exporting from ACA to AutoCad explodes the special AEC objects like walls and doors down to basic 3D geometry, whereas your sinks might already be standard AutoCad blocks. I haven’t used ACA for years so I don’t remember if the “Export to AutoCad” command has any selectable options that might control this behaviour.
Anssi
Thanks Geo & Anssi-
Helped me get to an acceptable solution in a round about way.
Doors and windows don’t behave as components but at least I can manipulate the faces.
Anssi- Maybe right that the doors and windows are exploded down into individual 3D entities (which in this case would actually be 2D faces drawn on differing axis (I think anyway).
Regardless, still have sinks (they are in fact 3D) that act like components. For whatever reason they are not dumbed down into individual planes.
Would really like to get to the bottom of this if there is a solution.
Noticed on line that there was a Revit to dwg to Sketchup tutorial where someone loaded the exported 3D dwg file into sketchup and his doors and windows were components (at least that’s what I’m remembering).
So, for anyone paying attention to this, when you import your exported ACA file into sketchup, make sure after you select import that you select “options” and then select the “merge coplaner faces” and “orient faces consistently” tick boxes or you will have all sorts of triangulated planes that aren’t much fun to work with.
Thanks for the help