When I look for this topic, most of what I’ve found is from 2015 and the links don’t work anymore.
I’ve been following Daniel Tal’s prep for exporting CAD files, and I’ve done the appropriate work of:
exploding blocks and objects
purging
auditing
checking file units match
saving down to an earlier version of AutoCAD
Per Daniel Tal’s instructions I have tried writing the lines to a block and importing, and also tried not creating a block and importing. When I import the drawing into SketchUp the contours are 1/4 the size they should be. I tried fooling with the units in AutoCAD to hopefully make them the right size, but nothing seems to work. Halp! I don’t know what I’m missing and I’m on a tight hours and dollars budget for this project.
Thanks much. Yes, I’ve tried making the AutoCAD file match the SketchUp units, and I’ve tried making the SketchUp match the AutoCAD units. Same result. The import comes in considerably smaller.
What I ended up doing was just taking a known dimension and scaling it up in SketchUp. Thanks again!
I have read that you have already tried to make sure that they have the same units, but I show you about “Options…” because I don’t know if you have seen that there are three elements that you need to keep in mind:
autocad file units;
sketchup file units (Window > Model Info > Units);
and units at import (File > Import > Options > Scale Units).
Here’s the file. I know I’m missing something, but I can’t figure out what. As I mentioned in a previous post, I ended up just scaling the flatwork off a known dimension, but it would be great if I didn’t have to do that. Thanks for the help!
Yes, I tried all those. From AutoCAD, from SketchUp, and units at import. It came in again today the same way. The length of the back property line is 76.5’, and it came in at 6’-something. I’m stumped.
Yes, I have made that selection using the Options button and made sure it’s in inches, and it’s still coming in to SKP considerably smaller on my side. I’m not sure what the hang up is. I’ve made sure in AutoCAD that it’s Architectural Inches, that SKP is Architectural Inches, and that the Options>Scale is Inches, and it still imports tiny.
I’ve also tried “reversing” it, matching SketchUp Model Info to decimal feet to match the AutoCAD drawing Units, and setting the Options to match on import, but that doesn’t change the import size problem either.
For now my solution is to import and scale up the imported drawing, and I’ll just have to go with that.
I’ve attached the topo that came from the civil. I’ve bound the XREF drawing, exploded everything I thought I needed to, purged unused, audited, and checked units.
Again, I’ve left certain layers frozen that I didn’t need. I can explode absolutely everything if I must, but that’s tedious, and didn’t seem necessary given what I was following in Daniel Tal’s book. Maybe that isn’t the correct process anymore? I’m open to suggestions, because I suspect I’ll run into this problem again on import of another drawing like this down the road.
Your topo has somehow been scaled.
I got the exactly same measurement when viewing the DWG in DWG TrueView.
The “Flattened” file seems to be right but this one is not
EDIT: the solution is simple: import the topo file using Feet as the import unit. The DWG has wrong units (inches) specified internally. It matches your flat file exactly when imported with Feet. Here the two superimposed. Alamo.skp (452.6 KB)
Hey everybody,
Pretty sure I’m having the same issue - ACAD.dwg of contours has somehow been scaled and my import into SU is way too small.
I’m using Autodesk DWG TrueView 2023 to open the file but cannot figure out how to find and adjust the units of the drawing anywhere on the interface. I realize this is an SU Forum but thought I would ask this first before proceeding to my following questions.
My SU file is set to Architectural Units and that appears to determine that the units-setting for my SU file is inches - so my ACAD file needs to be in inches too, but I can’t find any units setting in this Autodesk application.
… while editing the above post my keyboard on my work computer began to issue double letters for a single stroke. For example, when I press the ‘g’ key the computer types ‘hg’
So now because I cannot enter my pin or password correctly on my work computer I’m locked out.
Anyone ever encountered this before?
To the original question: In SketchUp, the Import dialog has an Options button that opens a dialog where you can specify the units SketchUp uses when importing a DWG file. No need to change anything in the original DWG file.
TrueView doesn’t allow any editing of the DWG files, you need a CAD application for that.
As to your keyboard problem: I would try unplugging the keyboard and plugging it back, or cold booting the computer, or checking if you haven’t accidentally turned on some of the Windows “helper” features like Sticky Keys…
