Brand new, lost, tutor, autocad to su,
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How about posting the dwg file so we can have a go at it.
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the original i worked off of is .dwg "extension not allowed" to upload here...i have a bunch of su models (kept saving each alt then renaming)...
I also now have a pdf - would that be worth a try ?@pmiller said:
How about posting the dwg file so we can have a go at it.
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dwg file upload not allowed by site,
i uploaded 2 others- waiting for monitor to approve@pmiller said:
How about posting the dwg file so we can have a go at it.
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I too was able to push/pull faces on the amphitheater. The self closing trees are components that must be right click "edit component" in order to create a face by tracing over a single edge. Open the attached tree. Components are like Acad blocks or xrefs.
If you are attempting to view a plan view, you must select the "Top" icon, and camera > parallel projection.
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9TH AVE.
Here is another method for a cleaner model. Turn X-ray on and off as you go. Open and close components etc. (if you see an empty scene--try close component)
Peter
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Let me jump in and make a couple observations, before the more experienced help arrives.
Looking at the lines on the ground from which you created the amphitheater.
I find that the lines do fill in. Were you able to do that?
What I did to make faces of the amphitheater plan:
I selected the group on the ground plane with all the lines. Dbl. click to open
I chose the menu item "View /Component edit /Hide rest of model" (to see better)
I then made another group by selecting just the amphitheater lines [ I'll tell you why I did this below]
Double click and open the amphitheater group.
Draw a line along one end of the amphitheater lines.
This filled most of the spaces with faces. The larger inside arc field did not fill, but that can be filled by drawing lines across until you get it all-- then removing lines (sorry this is how imported lines work sometime--tho it doesn't make sense nor work the same each try). A ruby like makefaces.rb might help.I had to group the amphitheater lines because there is some hidden geometry of the topo lines present inside that original ground plane group. (draw a rectangle inside that group first thing on the ground--and you will see faces following the topo outlines). These were probably messing up your work. The reason you are having that sort of interference may be that you have geometry on different layers
First do not put any loose geometry on other layers than Layer0. Never set other layers as the "current" layer. Only assign groups via the entity window to other layers to be able to hide them. Keep everything organized in groups.
Because you may have got things confused by having objects of groups across layers and so forth, it takes some work to separate the objects out again. I can tell you more if you want, probably by private message. See what other answers you get.
I see that the steps are not well drawn in 2d and they won't work until you redraw them in SU. Starting from what you have, I have added a file with some ideas. As many faces are not square to each other, it takes some doing. Click through the scenes.
(I should add that most of the items in my attached file are GROUPS as I use them to keep them separate from surrounding geometry. I didn't say it every step.)
Peter
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thank you.
i personally know the steps are horrible, i did them!
but i tried following your steps - i do not know enough about hidden geometry to figure out how to get only what i need. I rewatched the 3dbasecamp video on autocad to skp again, step by step (running from desk to desk with dog thinking its a game) but my problem i believe begins by not 'wblock' components and layers/details before import to su. I dont have the ability to do this - Could this be a major issue for my lines?
Also i ran all the ruby suggested, and still 'make faces' is not making one face for me - the intersecting lines is not intersecting lines.
I am hesitant to keep going - i want to make sure my foundation is correct. Do i just use .dwg save as image and draw on top of?
honoluludesk - the amp lines could be pulled up i think b/c i redrew them so many times - but how to do elevation like that?
so im starting a simpler project - just a garden plan - no steps, no wallsteps, etc. But last night very late no faces!
ill be back!
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I've sent you a message with my email address, autocad to SU is something i do all the time. I'll take a look and give you some pointers.
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@9thavenue said:
thank you.
but i tried following your steps - i do not know enough about hidden geometry to figure out how to get only what i need.
I am hesitant to keep going - i want to make sure my foundation is correct. Do i just use .dwg save as image and draw on top of?
so im starting a simpler project - just a garden plan - no steps, no wallsteps, etc. But last night very late no faces!
ill be back!
9th Ave. The "hidden geometry" is not quite the same as referred to in SU menu--the problem was some entity that showed up in the plan group but was usually invisible. So grouping the amphitheater lines only to separate this from that, made the lines easier to make faces (this may be a matter of learning your selection technique). As we said, we were able to make faces and pull them up, so your method from AutoCAD is not necessarily bad. But it is a good idea to have it in groups that do not have objects on multiple layers before import.
It is not that you cannot take advantage of dwg objects in SU. I have found what objects you do use need to be very clean, simple, and separate from other objects in the dwg file.
But as in the file I included, it is sometimes better to draw the basic shapes in SU so you control just how clean and correct they are. Doing so you can take advantage of the dwg objects by drawing over them and using the objects to snap to as you draw--which you cannot do with just an image.
Yes it may help to work on some simpler first projects. Be sure to look at file I sent by private message. (For example I made a terrain model from your file--so our AutoCAD import is quite usable.) You can use the foundation I sent if you find it is correct for your project.
Make sure your grahpics card driver is up to date. Maybe it is a computer problem.
Good luck.Peter
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wow, thanks peter!
im gonna play around with this and follow your awesome notes!! -
Peter's tips are right on. There are some other rubies that I believe Daniel talks about in his Autocad/SU talk from Basecamp 2008 that are huge time-savers if you're going to be converting files like this. Use them in the following order:
- Intersect Overlapping Lines
- Close Open Line Segments
- Extend Close Lines
- Delete Short Lines
- Make Faces
I grouped the amphitheater lines (to avoid conflicts with the lines on Layer "Cluster") and did these 5 steps and faces were created just like you'd expect.
Wyatt
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Hey,
I've taken a look at your cad files, this first I would suggest is that (if possible as you aren’t using AutoCAD) you try to use polylines over lines and join them together. This is just good CAD work flow and it will make it easier for you when it comes to sharing drawings and importing into SU.
The second thing is, I see that you have several designs in one file. I create a special SU cad file that is separate from the design file, this allows me to cut, flatten and prepare the .dwg for import to SU without having to ruin the design file.Now in the prep for import you need to remember a few key things.
One: All the lines look the same once they are in SU so make sure that one the lines that are important are there, get rid of any unnecessary lines like construction lines and layer properly.
Two: Hatches don’t come into SU and from the drawing package you use are converted into blocks, either delete them as you will find a lovely texture to put in their place.
Three: Make sure you don’t have any lines tracing each other; SU doesn’t like it when two lines occupy the same space. So if you have any duplicates tracing the same path delete them.
Fourth: If you are new to SU I would make sure everything is flat, SU does 3D better than and CAD programme I’ve come across.
Ok now into SU,
First thing you do is the go to model info and purge the unnecessary data that you could remove in the drawing package. AutoCAD has a habit of adding layers that aren’t needed.
Second select everything and then intersect with selected, SU 7 does this automatically when you are drawing a line but you need to do this with imports.
Then select all again and use the make faces tool, I’ve found that with SU 7 the Make faces 1.1 plugin works where the 1.4? (I think that’s the name) doesn’t.
That is all i can think off right now I hope it helps
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