If I import a DWG file to Layout, it works quite well. The problem is with interpretation of text entities. As you can see below, the text for the levels is very much bigger than in the original.
Is there an approved method of dealing with this simply, other than laboriously selecting each one and changing it?
Hi simoncbevans, a quick and easy way to do this is to create some text the height and style you want. Then, using the Style tool, select your created text and apply it to the group.
Have you created the DWG yourself? Is the text set to be annotative or not, and what happens if you change it to one or the other?
I did end up doing something similar. I edited one piece of text to get it to the right size and justification, then I used the eyedropper as you did. However, I discovered that part of the problem was that some text came in inside a group, some with several layers of nesting, so I had to explode everything first. I posted separately about this problem in Layout today.
No, the topo survey was done by another party and I imported it. I wanted to see how close I could get to the original Autocad page appearance by importing into Layout. Text apart, and some unexpected groupings, it worked pretty well. I’m guessing that, for some reason, the conversion process is unable to recognize original text formatting and just does something random with it.
At least on the PC there’s no need to do that. You can select everything on the page and change the text size without even opening a group.
Here’s a quick example from a random DWG I inserted. I selected only the top level group and changed the font size for all of the text in one step. Some of the text boxes need a bit of adjustment because the text was smaller than what I set.
I just redid the exercise using a combination of @trent 's advice and @DaveR 's.
So I wrote a bit of sample text of appropriate size and justification, sampled it with the eyedropper, and then applied it to a random bit of text. All the text in the drawing then took on the formatting and it looked exactly as I hoped it would. Really easy and quick.
I’ll know what to do next time!
Hi Trent
I posted earlier today about importing a Contour & Features Survey (DWG format) into Sketchup - all text and some other bits are not loaded, which I was aware of. I imported a Jpeg of the survey however the quality is not good. I completed a Concept Design for my client’s additions/renovations using the Jpeg as the start point, which was fine. They are now thinking things over.
I will be needing to create a proper Site Plan for submission to Local Government. From the post earlier simoncbevan suggested importing the DWG into Layout, something I had not thought of. I’ve done that, but am now finding it impossible to get the scale correct, so that it “meshes” perfectly with the model. A little more online looking brought me to this thread, and your name as part of the Sketchup Team.
My gut feeling is that I am not using Sketchup/Layout correctly in terms of Importing a Contour & Feature Survey.
Please point me in the direction of some tutorial information and/or video.
Thanks. Ian. Perth, Western Australia.
As a side issue to your main point, I have found that PNG files work best when using image files in LO.
My computer was set to produce JPEGs from screen grabs but, on advice received here, I was able to change the default to PNG and I have not looked back!
Keep in mind that JPGs and PNGs are raster images and raster images of text are generally not going to look as good as vector text. If you want it to look good it should be inserted as RTF or XLSX. Might be able to use some OCR software to get you a text file.