AutoCAD to Sketchup Contour Model - Sketchup not reading AutoCAD Elevation in formation

SketchUp Pro
,
1

Hi All,

Really struggling to find an answer to this problem.

I have a 3D contour model produced within KTF / AutoCAD. It consists of polylines that have elevations - 10cm intervals to be precise.

Now, when I import this file into sketchup pro, it is flat.

Why is it not retaining the elevations?

Any ideas?

2

Any change you can share the file? Without seeing it, the best any of us can do is guess.

3

Course, should have attached it up top

CONTOURS FOR REV IT.dwg (1.2 MB)

4

I imported and grabbed a few points, at random. There ARE changes in the height of the lines, but they are very minimal.

1468×832 23.6 KB

5

@TheOnlyAaron beat me by a few secs, but I agree. It looks like the vertical scale in the dwg is wrong.

6

Any suggestions on how to correct that if there is vertical elements within?

In AutoCAD, the line elevations are, for example, 80.130 - drawing is saved as unitless, but I have tried it saved in meters…

7

Here’s a comparison between 3 lines…

Bottom Label in CAD - Elevation 78.23
Middle Label in CAD - Elevation 78.22
Top Label in CAD - Elevation 78.21

The information in both programs doesn’t match up either

1713×901 24.3 KB

8

Additional labels show that there is slight changes in elevation, but not by enough

1553×883 20.7 KB

9

SketchUp Guide: Importing and Exporting CAD Files

… most especially, this sub-section …
SketchUp Guide: Importing a CAD file into SketchUp Pro
where it explains about the Import Options dialog.

10

If I import the model in Meters I get the attached…

If imported in Milimeters it shows in the same scale as AutoCAD - Image as above screen shots

11

@TheOnlyAaron Can I ask what scale settings you used when importing?

Am I wrong in thinking that the model should be imported at the right elevation?

12

I actually used my default settings (feet) on import. Then I changed units afterward to Meters.

13

Thanks, The whole scaling thing still not making any sense to me. There seems to be no correlation between the two models.

14

My guess would be that someone converted a survey into contours but the contours information was in other units (meters?) than the ground plane (millimeters?). Perhaps the model should be scaled 1000 (or 100 or 10) times in the blue direction?

Edit: As the model is so flat that the Scale tool in SketchUp doesn’t show the blue scaling grip, I had to try it in AutoCad.
When I scaled it 10 000 times in the vertical direction the vertical distance of the contour lines became 100 mm in SketchUp. What should it be? The file seems to have a couple of errors that show as steep peaks or abysses in the scaled version

770×756 6.47 KB

I attach the skp below but I had to zip it as it is about 4 MB. For a SketchUp terrain, I would guess that at least half of the contours could be deleted, it is far too fine-grained. To me it seems that it was somehow auto-generated with some software out of a relatively small number of actual survey points.

If the horizontal unit also should be Centimeters, you will still have to scale it 10 times in the red/green direction. Then the site would measure some 2 kilometers across (it is now about 200 meters)

Anssi
terrain.zip (1.4 MB)

15

@Anssi That’s really really helpful!!

Well spotted on the creation of the terrain from minimal information.

A colleague of mine is working on this project and the only information he had was flat spot heights. This is what was used to create the contours.

I’ll have a play around with CAD scaling as yo have suggested and see what I can come up with.

Once again many thanks

16

TRY.skp (383.3 KB)

HI
Was wondering if we can get some advice. Have been provided a 3D in autocad file of a furniture. Have imported the dwg file into the sketchup program. It shows the furniture with lines (see attached) and save this as a sketch up file now. How can we have all the sides filled with colours an inport them in as component? Please help.

17

You should post a new post about your inquiry given that this one was last active over 2 years ago. Makes it easier to track that way and doesn’t tag a bunch of people who have since moved on.

18

HI Eric

I was wanting to post a new but when they ask user. Who should that be?

TRY.skp (383.3 KB)

HI everyone
Was wondering if we can get some advice. Have been provided a 3D in autocad file of a furniture. Have imported the dwg file into the sketchup program. It shows the furniture with lines (see attached) and save this as a sketch up file now. How can we have all the sides filled with colours an inport them in as component? Please help.

19

Can you post the original DWG file?