DWG in elevation

[ron.sanpedro]

We have a second pilot starting (wooo freakin' hooo! Movin' faster than expected) And we have detailed DWGs of the adjacent building elevations. We are talking 100 year old urban buildings, lots of fussy bits. We are drawing design cues from that, but we certainly don't want to model. My thought was to do like I did in AutoCAD and put the DWG elevation on a simple mass, like glueing a printed elevation to foam core.
Anyone tried this? Is it even possible to have a DWG on anything but a level plane? If it is, are there any gotchas? The other option is to plot the DWG to an image and apply that, but then you loose the ability to snap.

Crossed fingers, because it would save us a ton of pain.

Thanks,
Gordon

[aaronrumple]

I don't even go as far as putting the linework in the correct 3D space. I simply import it into the view I need with the "Current View Only" option as drafting objects. It works great. you'll be able to snap to everything and use it as reference. Sometimes I'll import the plan as model linework on a level if there are not too many level changes. That saves a bit of coordination from view to view.

[ron.sanpedro]

I don't even go as far as putting the linework in the correct 3D space. I simply import it into the view I need with the "Current View Only" option as drafting objects. It works great. you'll be able to snap to everything and use it as reference. Sometimes I'll import the plan as model linework on a level if there are not too many level changes. That saves a bit of coordination from view to view.

My thought was to apply it to the adjacent buildings so that elevations and 3D views have that contextual information, as well as being able to reference it with snaps for design. We may find that we need to model some of the adjacent building just to have it look "right", but hopefully not.

Best,
Gordon

[Roger Evans]

Interesting

I was sent a dwg (originally from Archicad but converted to dwg)
~ all the elevations were on one "sheet"

Import was a right royal mess & given my limited (ie nil) understanding of autocad & dwg I was able to come up with this ~ but only by using mass & picking lines ~ I found you can use this method to limited effect

Image shows dwg lines to South Elevation in Red & North Elevation Lines in Blue
(NB part completed)

Anyone who wants to give proper guidance on appropriate method for this is very welcome

[cphubb]

Gorden,

You can import the file into the model as an elevation. The method is as follows.

1. Create mass for the building.
2. Create elevation looking at the face you are aligning to.
3. Import the dwg. Check "Orient to view" if not already checked. Make sure current view only is unchecked.
4. Import.
5. You will probably need to move the drawing to get it aligned with the face of the mass. The align tool in a side elevation or section works well for this.

This being said we do not use this method. We will always import to current view only as drafting items and modify as required to integrate with our Revit items

[ron.sanpedro]

This being said we do not use this method. We will always import to current view only as drafting items and modify as required to integrate with our Revit items

Chris,
what are the pros and cons that led you to not use the paste on approach? Do you find it is just faster to model? Are there graphics or performance issues with using a DWG this way? I am just looking for the most effective way to the elevations right. If we need more surface depth for 3D views we can address it later. That said, if this approach has negatives later on it is best to know now.

Thanks,
Godon