Optimize dwg file for import
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Hi all people and sketchup gurus - probably this is a newbie question, but I cant find a solution, so this could be of importance to others. I need to import a dwg file with level curves, and need to make a terrain in Sketchup. The problem is, the file is ginormous. How can I optimize and simplify the dwg, reducing the complexity and improving the (sometimes) hand-made curves, also reducing the polys? Thank you very much for any suggestion on any free app to do this.
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I do this pretty frequently for the hospitals I work on so the sites are quite large. You're talking about importing a 2d line drawing of the site, right? How large are the files you're getting?
There's no real magic to my method. I will typically delete everything from the AutoCad file that I don't need in SU. That should leave you with just roads, curbs, sidewalks, building outlines, and your contours and a few other assortments. That should leave you with a fairly small 3d line drawing which shouldn't increase your SU file size by much at all. You'll still need to do some hand stitching to get all of those lines to create faces but I don't think there's any way around that. A shortcut on that end though is to use the MakeFaces ruby which will speed it up a lot.
-Brodie
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yeah theres no magic solution. just delete all the layers and geometry that you don't need.
once you got the topo contours just use sandbox 'from contours' tool. highlight the lines then select 'from contours' and it will mesh between the lines.
onec you got your 3d terrain you can drape the cad plan over (although this sometimes messes up the mesh)
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btw, I starting reading Google SketchUp for Site Design: A Guide to Modeling Site Plans, Terrain and Architecture (the name alone takes up the first 12 pages of the book!
) yesterday and it talks a lot about importing CAD drawings and gives some really helpful advice on a couple different methods to through the cleanup process, as well as some various ruby scripts which speed things up. He also has some interesting ways of using a few tools that help with site modeling as well. I've only skimmed it so far but if you work a lot with terrain you might check it out. There don't seem to be many SU books out there yet so getting detailed info can be tricky, at least that's my experience.arklandesign started a thread on the book here...
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=21371-Brodie
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