Titleblock Creation Problem

[Tom Weir]

Yo,
I am trying to create a titleblock by inserting the Autocad version into my Revit titleblock frame.
The Autocad version came from the architect (we are the structural consultants) and was originally scaled at 3/4" = 1'-0". When I insert that into the Revit frame it came in way too big, so I went back to the Autocad version and changed the scale to full scale (1:1).
But now it keeps saying it "can't find the center of geometry", and so it won't insert at all.
Any thoughts on how I might resolve this dilemna?

Thanks and have a great day...

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[christo4robin]

Tom,

This is just a brainstorm - don't know if it will work or not...

After scaling the titleblock so that it measures 24x36 (or 30x42 etc.), why don't you copyclip all of it, open a new AutoCAD file, paste the titleblock info into modelspace, save, then insert that file into Revit.

IMHO, copyclipping and/or inserting AutoCAD files into a new file often fixes lots of wierd little glitches that occur.

[Cathy Hadley]

You might also try resetting the drawing limits in Acad and make sure the base point is at 0,0 ... and then of course the ever popular purge command...

[gregcashen]

And make sure your limits are not set to something huge, which may cause opengl issues on import to revit.

[Tom Weir]

4christo4, Cathy and Gregg
We are consulting engineers, so we have to use the architects title sheet on our projects.....and I am can't import their title sheets.
I tried re-setting limits, and purging, base point at 0,0, without success. 4christo4's suggestion of copyclipping did work though. But Revit can't import polylines so the sheet did not look correct. OK, so I tried explode the imported title sheet so I could beef up the line work, but the result was that most of the lines simply disappeared! GGRRR!
Finally I gave up and scanned the sheet to a jpg. Unfortunately, we found that these imported images have various plotting problems with PDF formats and our Xerox 8830 plotter. But it's the best I could do for today.
Revit has a considerable problem in this regard, my experience has shown. They really need to work on this.

Thanks for your comments and have a great day.

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[aaronrumple]

..you could post the file and others might be able to figure out what is going on...

[aggockel50321]

From you're original post, it sounds like the titleblock was used in acad's model space, rather than paper space, a common phenonama that consultants still do to this day!

If it's 3/4" = 1'-0", you'd have to scale it down by 3/48. (3/4"=1', or 3/4"=12", or 3/4/12=1, or 3/48=1 One of those ugly acad things that i still have nightmares about)

Try importing the title sheet on to a revit sheet of the same size, i,e A,B,C, D or E. If it's huge, highlight it open it's property dialog, select edit, and in the scale column, which will read 1.0, type in =3/48.

Close the dialog, & it'll drop to the correct size.

If the titleblock lines are in different layers, you can then go to object properties, & under the imported objects tab, change the lineweights & colors by layer.

Good luck Tom, & maybe this will allow you to have a nice day also.

[Tom Weir]

andrewg,
Those were good suggestions, thanks. Now I see how to adjust the scale factor on the insert.
When I went to the original Autocad titleblock file this morning to put the lines on a layer that I could manipulate in Revit I realized that all the lines had an 8'-0" thickness!! I think that's why when I exploded the lines in Revit they were lost, because Revit could not handle the polylines with thickness.
Once I flattened them out they did not disappear in Revit when I exploded the block. Then I was able to manipulate the line widths as you described.
Thanks and have a great day....

Tom Weir
Los Angeles