How to import an autocad dwg that has tabs

SketchUp Pro
1

Greetings - I have been given a .dwg base file to work from. I am in SKP pro18.
The various sheets are in tabs in Autocad.

When I try to import into skp, I loose a large portion of the line work and it is basically unusable.

Any tips for trouble shooting this? Thank you! heather

2

Is any of the line work which is missing part of a hatch? Also, if you uploaded images of the dwg versus what you get on import, or the dwg file itself, that would help us diagnose your issue.

There are several types of entities which would be ignored on DWG import.

3

See this link for a list of CAD entities that are supported and unsupported.

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4

Pretty sure that SU will ignore any and all layout tabs from an imported DWG file.

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5

That makes sense that it will ignore the tabs. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can share the drawing because it is owned by someone else and was shared with me for a work related reason.

6

It is the primary line work that is missing… I will try to do a limited screen shot

7

There used to be an AutoCAD command to convert layout tabs to model space drawings. If you have AutoCAD you can find this command and try it.

8

(take this with a grain of salt because surprise, this is mostly an AI generated answer from gpt4*)

You may want to copy and paste the line work from each tab into a new DWG all in one tab before importing it into SketchUp.

the "salty" part which assumes you have AutoCAD
  1. Open the source file in AutoCAD and select the layout tab that contains the line work you want to copy.
  2. Select all the line work using a selection window or by pressing CTRL+A.
  3. Copy the line work using CTRL+C or the COPY command.
  4. Switch to the model space where you want to paste the line work and use CTRL+V or the PASTE command to insert it at a desired location. You may need to adjust the scale and orientation of the line work as needed.
  5. Repeat this process for each layout tab until you have all the line work in the model space.
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9

Unfortunately, I do not have autocad. Do any of your know of a cheap, autocad knockoff I could do a monthly subscription of to accomplish this task?

10

Can you send me the file? I have AutoCAD 2023 and would be glad to take a look for you.

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11

You may have to sign a confidentiality agreement :crazy_face:

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12

I would love to but the file is not legally mine to share… i was given it by the owner for a specific job related issue and I think I need to honor that…

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13

Fair enough. NanoCAD has a free AutoCAD LT clone that might be able to open the layout tabs and copy and paste them back into the model tab as another user suggested. Best of luck! :slight_smile:

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14

Thanks! I will check it out.

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15

You can either:

  1. At the bottom of the drawing area, click the Layout tab of the layout you want to export.
  2. Right-click the tab, and select Export Layout To Model from the context menu. …
  3. Select a folder location, enter a name for your exported layout, and then click Save.

Or then select the objects and use the CHSPACE command.

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16

got it now… thanks! :grinning:
that said, if i could get in there I would be willing to do just that! Thats for the help!

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17

I am pretty sure that @Anssi’s suggestion would work better. (To be more transparent, I actually was trying to see if gpt4 could answer the question, that was mostly an AI generated response to your question)

And no, I am not planning to start spamming people’s posts with AI generated content, this was a one-time thing.

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18

It does work BUT user will have to scale the resulting DWG file back to full scale. It seems to export based on the View Port scale. Just be warned.

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19

I myself would choose the CHSPACE option. You select your paperspace content, start the command and select a viewport. The objects are ported to modelspace and scaled with the viewport scale.

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20

I think that this is the command I was thinking of. I’ve never used it myself as I haven’t had a reason to.

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