How to resize text & dimensions when saving to dwg

SketchUp Pro
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1

when i save to dwg, the specs are all blurred.
now do i save the file so it can be used as a dwg file.
when i save to dwg, the entire file cannot be read in detail.
what am i doing wrong?
thank you.

2

I presume you mean text by “specs”, as in specifications rather than spectacles, but without the drawing in question, it’s really hard to know what the problem is.

3

su to dwg does not work

4

su to dwg does not work

5

I presume you mean ‘dimensions’ rather than ‘specs’ ?

Have you tried your CAD app’s formatting options for dimension-styles ?
And then applying those to the exported dimensions ?

6

su to dwg does not work

7

All I can say is that I have used Autocad and its clones for many years but now only use SU, partly because I got fed up with AC! Admittedly, I don’t have much need to export to DWG. Most of the time I am exporting from DWG and that works well for vector info and not well at all for text. I can definitely draw faster in SU because it is so much more intuitive than AC. Also, it has this rather wonderful Community which means you actually get answers when you hit a problem! But it’s horses for courses, I guess.

8

su to dwg does not work

9

A. From the menu choose: Window > ModelInfo

  • Switch to the Dimensions panel.

B. In the “Text” section:

  1. Click the “Fonts…” button
  2. Change “Points” to “Height”
  3. Enter an appropriate size (in model units,) for
    the text height (just below the word “Height”.)
  4. Click “OK” button. (The Fonts dialog closes.)

C. In the “Dimensions” section:

  1. Set the alignment that you wish all the
    dimensions to have (ie, “Align to dimension line”)
  2. Choose “Above”, “Centered” or “Outside” from the dropdown list.
  3. Click the wide “Select all dimensions” button
  4. Click the wide “Update all dimensions” button

D. Retry your DWG export.

If this works for you, you will need to make these settings for a new empty model,
and then save as a custom template.
From the menu: File > Save As Template…

Then set your custom template as the default.
Window > Preferences > Templates panel

EDIT: I just tested the above protocol with the SKP you attached above.
It worked. I did also change the font face to Terminal also, just to test that it was also honored.
And it was.
The DWG (which I opened with Dassault DraftSight 2D) was fine.

However as the SketchUp User Guide says, dimensions are not yet supported. So they export as text, and lines, set to Blue color, on layer “0”.
The text height in SketchUp I had set to 10", and exported to DWG as 9.9267" in height.

FYI

10

The native exporter is known to have issues.

But there are some 3rd party export extensions.
http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/search/site/CAD%20export

11

Dan,
I genuinely appreciate the kindness of your reply and the time it took for it.
That said, SU does not work for us. Yes we can make models. But so what.
We have to have REAL autocad drawings for suppliers, contractors, etc.
I submitted dwg’s from sketchup and the response was, how shall i say this, pretty unhappy, eg. I can’t read this s–t".
Therefore this office of 6 architects will continue doing what we’ve done for almost 4 decades and that is
use autocad.
But again, I appreciate your kind and thorough and thoughtful reply.
Peter Bice
bicepartnersnyc

1 Like
12

Did you try exporting through the LayOut application? It has its quirks too, but gives a bit more control of the output process, including title blocks etc.

Anssi

13

@Anssi, in my test (of his SKP) I didn’t. I just proved that having the SketchUp dimensions settings on “Align to dimension line” (instead of “Align to screen”) and some sane height in model units, (instead of “Points”,) would produce a readable DWG.

But, when I used to use AutoCAD, I would put the dimensions in Paper Space, and their text heights were in plot units.

I know in other threads we’ve discussed the need for LayOut to have it’s DWG exporter expanded (as far as viewports go.)

Can LayOut export LayOut dimensions to DWG dimension objects, at present ?

14

Yes. It is still best to apply some postprocessing to the DWG. The exporter has annoying quirks especially in the text style/size department. Basically you get into DWG what you see in LO but to achieve that, the exporter uses very idiosyncratic formatting.

Anssi