Some of us need proper dwg export desperately.
However:
THERE IS ONE WAY to make a quite proper dwg from a sketchup model. It does not involve Layout, as that will not produce precise geometry. The engineers report that the distance between your reference lines are 5999,999 meters instead of the 6 exact meters when exporting from Layout. Engineers hate that, so dont use Layout for CAD export. You will also hate to get geometry back from engineers with those errors embedded.
The method is like this:
1.In sketchup you set up a scene for each tag or group of tags you want to make a dwg layer from. Each scene needs to share a common reference point ( some geometry that defines the insertion point) . Each scene needs to be zoomed to the exact same location of the model, so best keep some reference geometry around the whole model so that zoom extent will bring the same scope to each scene. The export will otherwise whimsically change position according to the panning/zooming state of your scene, like it does in your Layout viewports for no reason.
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Geometry needs to have line colour like the colour you want it to use in the dwg, so use colour by tag, and set the tag colour to your desired dwg layer colour. A “hidden line” Style will then give scenes with coloured linework and nothing else in the scene. That makes it easy to see the resulting linework before export.
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You then export each scene individually.
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You insert x-refs of each exported dwg into your “master dwg”, and place them on top of each other with the help of their reference point. The imports will not have the dreaded broken lines from every other crossing geometry on other layers.
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Before sending away your dwg, use "save as, in your “dwg app”, like autocad, and “Bind” your x-refs in the file you send out, so they are embedded in the export file.
THAT WAY your “master dwg file” can be updated with new exports from your sketchup scenes, while the other file, the copy you send away has the x-refs embedded.
You have now made a manual/ semi-half-automatic dwg machine , and if you standarize your tag naming and have a sketchup template with readymade scenes for those exports, you will not use most of your awake time trying to export things out of sketchup anymore.
Your life might have some small meaning afterall .
Of course, a PRO modeling platform should not engage in whimsical standoffs with 3D amateur potato design freeware like Blender, but rather make efficient tools for its paying customers, so they dont use half the time on things that should be automatic.
Sketchup is our chosen design platform from our love of it, and we will just have to live with the fact that an algorithm that could process exports automatically is no priority , although proper dwg export should from its programmatical nature be really easy to do.
How to do it : The export Flattens each group/component individually and place the result in a dwg block on a layer according to the tag it came from. Name the group like the sketchup group/component. Make a polyline from the connected section cut edges. Keep that origin. Make index colors from similar colors). Sounds like no rocket science .
But its not gonna happen, and we know that those who dont need this is very vocal on insisting that nobody else needs CAD exchange features. So thats my little rant…
