Switched to Autocad for Mac - 2D DWG files fail to import to Sketchup Pro

Hi all,

So I’ve looked for this issue and haven’t been able to find it. I’m hoping someone here will be able to help.

I recently switched to Autocad for Mac from the windows version. I’ve never had issues importing 2D floorplan files into sketchup before, but am now seeing failures on my imports. When I select the file, the import results window is blank (no data), and when I close that, a window pops up saying that my import failed. I’ve verified the following items are ok and am now at a loss.

  • File size is only 300kb
  • Units are in inches in both dwg and skp file
  • DWG file drawing is near origin
  • All lines are in a single layer
  • No Xrefs or blocks

I was able to import a file that had been saved in my windows version of autocad and had no issues, but the minute I tried the one saved in the mac version, it failed again. Please help!

What version are the AutoCAD files? Try exporting them from AutoCAD as something earlier than 2018.

That totally worked. Ugh. Seriously? :woman_facepalming: Any idea why that would happen? I have sketchup 2018 and autocad 2018. Thank you so much for your help!

My understanding is the DWG exports from ACAD 2018 are proprietary and the importer SketchUp utilizes for DWG files can’t read them.

Got it. Thanks again for the help. I was clearly mistaking one issue for another.

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Though the buzz word ‘BIM’ , hijackacked by certain companies, really should invoke that people could collaborate more easily, some companies are trying to reign over their islands

You kids! Git off my lawn! :smiley:

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Unless I’m mistaken, this happens with every new release of AutoCAD. dwg has always been proprietary and it takes time for the rest of the industry to reverse engineer it and catch up with compatibility.

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Drawing format version codes for ACAD
How to find the format of a DWG or which version of ACAD was used to create/save a DWG
or use our free DXF/DWG Version support tool (Win only, no installation)
.dwg : Version History

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To sum up:

  • Autodesk released a new version of the DWG format with AutoCad 2018.
  • No non-Autodesk software that I know of can yet read it.
  • AutoCad users should do a Save As to an earlier DWG version when sending out DWG files.
  • People who receive AutoCad 2018 files can download and install the free DWG True View application from Autodesk. Besides viewing DWG files, it can save them down to a long list of earlier DWG ond DXF formats.

Autodesk is now releasing their AutoCad 2019 version. Probably that doesn’t bring a new file format.

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