AutoCAD translation

General HighDesign Discussions
Post Reply
User avatar
matthew.Stanfield
Posts: 162
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 4:10 am
Location: Mansfield, OHio
Contact:

AutoCAD translation

Post by matthew.Stanfield »

I just picked up some feelance drafting work for another architect. He requires that i deliver the final product in AutoCAD. I am planning on doing the majority of the drafting in HD and then exporting dwg's to take into AutoCAD to put on the title block.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of work flow that they may be able to advise / warn me of any issues i may encounter.

I have had trouble bringing text from dwg's into HD, so i am figuring i may have to do all the annotation in AutoCAD.
matthew.Stanfield
Principal Architect
FiELD9: architecture
Mansfield, OHio
http://www.field9architecture.com

User avatar
alexwhite
Posts: 266
Joined: Tue May 04, 2004 4:45 pm
Location: Indianapolis USA
Contact:

Re: AutoCAD translation

Post by alexwhite »

Good luck with this - I never seem to get text blocks, dimensions, etc. consistently from other dog files so not sure how the HD export will handle them. The other difference will be what happens with acad's need for paper/model space.

Another in between may be to use SU Layout - import dsn files there - annotate - then export to dwg.
fat guy in a little coat

User avatar
matthew.Stanfield
Posts: 162
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 4:10 am
Location: Mansfield, OHio
Contact:

Re: AutoCAD translation

Post by matthew.Stanfield »

Thanks for the input alex.

Unfortunately, i do not have SU Layout and am not familiar with it.

I have access to my old employer's AutoCAD and hardware as he still drafts manually and does not have anyone else in the office right now. He has said that i can use it if i ever need to. As such i was going to do the drafting in HD (probably at 1:1 scale) and bring that into model space of AutoCAD. I was thinking i could then set up Paper space in AutoCAD with view ports and the architect's title block.

I am going to do some experimenting with dimensions and annotations in HD, but as i have a pretty tight deadline, i will not have opportunity to fiddle with it too much.

I will keep you posted with how it works out and if i can come up with a relatively painless way to get my drawings into this behemoth known as AutoCAD.
matthew.Stanfield
Principal Architect
FiELD9: architecture
Mansfield, OHio
http://www.field9architecture.com

axys
Posts: 53
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 1:48 pm
Location: Welsh Marches, UK
Contact:

Re: AutoCAD translation

Post by axys »

For all of its many faults, Vectorworks imports dwg files really well, retaining all of the text formatting, unlike HD, which doesn't. I can open the same dwg file on the same Mac and end up with completely different looking drawings. I haven't tried it in the other direction.
OS X Monterey - iMac Retina 5k, 27 inch, late 2015 with 27 inch second screen

User avatar
matthew.Stanfield
Posts: 162
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 4:10 am
Location: Mansfield, OHio
Contact:

Re: AutoCAD translation

Post by matthew.Stanfield »

Just sent off the final AutoCAD files.

I did nearly all the line work in HD. Text and dimensions did export surprisingly well. Leaders, on the other hand did not. Even so, i ended up doing pretty much all the annotation in AutoCAD as well as some touch-up on the line work. Once i had it in AutoCAD and partially annotated, it was hard to bring it back into HD for editing.

I also ended up hatching in AutoCAD. It just seemed easier to use native AutoCAD hatches. Plus AutoCAD does have a richer selection of hatches to choose from.
matthew.Stanfield
Principal Architect
FiELD9: architecture
Mansfield, OHio
http://www.field9architecture.com

User avatar
matthew.Stanfield
Posts: 162
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 4:10 am
Location: Mansfield, OHio
Contact:

Re: AutoCAD translation

Post by matthew.Stanfield »

As i continue to have to work in AutoCAD, i am becoming increasingly annoyed with the fact that i have to scale my drawings from HD by a factor of 12 when i import them into AutoCAD. Does anyone have a tip for getting a 1:1 scaling from HD to AutoCAD.
matthew.Stanfield
Principal Architect
FiELD9: architecture
Mansfield, OHio
http://www.field9architecture.com

Post Reply