Workflow Question - How to prep big AutoCAD files for Sketchup?

Hi there. My first post and upfront apologies if this has been answered a million times. Please just point me to the relevant post if my search skills are lacking, if you’ve got the time. And thank you for it.

I’ve inherited a typically largish drawing set from an architect, with lots of blocks and xrefs. There are 13 root drawings such as “KS819_K01.dwg” (<-- the main floor plan I think), “KS819-ID07_4.dwg”, “KS819-ID02_1.dwg”, etc. There are 15 external references such as “x-KS819-bdr.dwg”, “X-SHELL-1607.dwg”, “X-FLR-PL-1607.dwg”, etc.

What’s the best workflow for prepping a cad file for import into Sketchup? I think all I need is a clean base floor plan and elevation as guides, but I’m overwhelmed by somewhat ineffective EXPLODE and PURGE commands, 100s of layers, hatches, etc. Yelp?

Obviously work on a disposable copy.
Working in CAD…
If you want the Xrefs included you need to bind them.
Use Purge with the option set to purge all nested etc.
SketchUp will only import geometry - edges and faces, and guide/point data [if wanted] - and blocks containing those kinds of objects [which will come in as component-instances] - so you should purge everything else, otherwise their layers will import etc… off layers also import…
In particular I’d get rid of text, hatching, dims etc.
You need to have all layers on and then filter the selection to say text and delete those, repeat for different types and purge as you go. You can also delete layers and their contents but that requires confidence that everything is structured properly - otherwise some geometry on the ‘text’ layer would go too…

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Note that if your architect used objects from AutoCad Architecture or one of the other “vertical” versions of AutoCad to construct the plans or models, they must be converted to standard AutoCad entities from the originating application before they can be imported into SketchUp. The presence of these special objects (like AutoCad Architecture walls) can even result in SketchUp freezing or crashing when importing. The “proxies” that standard AutoCad uses to display or print these objects won’t transfer into any other application.

Anssi

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SketchUp User Guide

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Thanks TIG for the reminder to bind xrefs.
I also tracked down the checkmark to allow blocks to explode. I got a lot more in Sketchup after I exploded stuff to lines.
Is the Filter feature a part of Autocad 2015? Seems like it might be after that.
Purge, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, or there are so many layers I can’t tell the difference.

In AutoCAD…

Filter is the ‘funnel’ icon in properties…

Purge has settings to purge nested etc - bottom check-box options.

You can delete whole Layers - including their contents in the Layers Manager…

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