Export/View Clash locations to dwg

[raghavendra.bhat]

I have a dwg file exported to nwd & performed a clash control there are say n number of clashes. There is a report generated showing the X, Y, Z location of the clash with a snapshot of the clash.
The problem I am facing is the elements which are clashing are similar and many of them at various location in the drawing it is very hard to locate the position in DWG in which area the clash has occurred just by seeing the snap shot.
Using layers it’s not possible as all are in same layers.
To locate every clash by entering coordinates is also not practical as there will be 1000's of clashes

Is there a way to locate these positions of clashes directly in DWG?
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I just thought of exporting only the elements which are clashing by hiding others to DWF & then xref them in DWG file but i have not done such kind of activity earlier can any one suggest if this is possible.
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Regards,
Raghavendra Bhat

[amixam]

Try using the switchback feature. It will recreate the view of the clashed item in AutoCAD. You need to enable this in AutoCAD by typing NWLOAD in the command line. In Navisworks, at the bottom of the clash results tab is a button to "switch" to CAD. Saves tons of time.

Cheers

[RobertB]

And if you cannot use the switchback feature, the clash report lists the AutoCAD object handle. So you can zoom to the object using AutoCAD's Zoom, Object command. You just need to convert the handle to an object ID, e.g.:

Command: ._Zoom
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: _Object
Select objects: (handent "11d")
<Entity name: -40157d58>
1 found
Select objects: <Enter>

[cjehly]

I know for a fact that you can insert a block at the clash location. There are already lisps that will do this based on an X,Y,Z text file. I started to do my own thing, but haven't figured out how to parse the clash report down enough.

I was hoping it would be published some where by now, but "somebody" is sitting on it.

[dgorsman]

I know for a fact that you can insert a block at the clash location. There are already lisps that will do this based on an X,Y,Z text file. I started to do my own thing, but haven't figured out how to parse the clash report down enough.

I was hoping it would be published some where by now, but "somebody" is sitting on it.

You could export the clash report as XML and use MSXML DOM to parse it. Not sure if that could be applicable to the HTML report as well.

[RobertB]

I know for a fact that you can insert a block at the clash location. There are already lisps that will do this based on an X,Y,Z text file. I started to do my own thing, but haven't figured out how to parse the clash report down enough.

I was hoping it would be published some where by now, but "somebody" is sitting on it.

I'm not sure that inserting something at the clash point is any better than simply zooming to the object. With a bit of LISP code you can even highlight the object to which you zoomed based on the object's handle.

[david.kingham]

Avatech developed a nice tool that exports the clash locations to a cad file, I'm not sure if they continued development of this, you contact matt.mason at avat.com to find out

[hkossila]

I started a lisp routine that will insert a block at the clashpoint location, and add the name of the clash or group. It's still kind of buggy but your welcome to try it. Here's how it works: export report to txt format. the lisp routine reads from top to bottom and does not cycle through, only repeats 3000 times. If you have a lot of clashes, like 1000, you might want to change 3000 to 10000. It looks for an identifier, such as group name or clash name or clashpoint, and then inserts a block using that information. It's a pretty rigid program right now, therefore the report must be written just so. Basically, when you export, the only contents that should be checked are summary, clashpoint, layer name, item path, description, comments, clash group.

If you want to try it here's how. Insert the block into a blank drawing. It doesn't need to be anywhere, just in the block list, as the program will look for it in the drawing. Run the lisp routine, you will be prompted to locate the txt file you created, with only contents check as I said above. When you find it, your drawing will be populated with a bunch of X's and the clash or group name on a special layer I think I called it clashpoint. You can then save the drawing and xref it into your real drawing, at 0,0. Use the "find" command, make sure to include only xref information, and put the name of the clash or group, it will zoom right to it.

As I said, the routine is still buggy. I don't have time to develop it more right now, But it gives a general idea of where the clash is and can be helpful for subs in different offices.

For those autolispers out there, I tried and tried to entmod the "clashname" attribute in my block. Would not work - kept getting an exception error. Oddly, when I would remove that line of code, run the routine, then enter that line on the command line, worked just fine. Didn't have time to keep messing with it so I just inserted a line of text instead. Any ideas? Also, sorry for the crudeness of my code. No time to make things pretty.

Heather

[dortega4269]

As I said, the routine is still buggy. I don't have time to develop it more right now, But it gives a general idea of where the clash is and can be helpful for subs in different offices.

Heather

Heather,
I know it's been quite some time since your post, however, I was wondering if you were able to further this LISP and possibly eliminate the errors and quirks? I've successfully used it and modified it slightly to insert another block with additional attributes, but it doesn't add the attribute according to the Clash Report.
If you have anything to offer, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[dgorsman]

Haven't looked at it, but instead of using a text file consider using the XML file. This can be read in LISP using MSXML and VLISP ActiveX functions. Using XPath you can search and select information with a great deal of precision.