AutoCAD MEP

[#1]

Just wanted to share this info about saving back a 2013 drawing to an earlier version. To allow users who don't have 2013 to view your 3D drawing, you need to go to an iso view and then export the drawing from that view to an earlier version. The text comes in at a 45 degree angle, but that's not a big deal. The elevation tags do disappear, so what I did, was export a 2D drawing and copy and paste the elevation tags out ( pretty simple to do by selecting  one tag,then select similar,go up to edit menu - copy with a basepoint of 0,0,0 and then paste it into my newly exported 2010 3D drawing) Although the drawing will lose it's 'intelligence', other users will still have a 3D drawing to work with and be able to see the elevations as well.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

What I usually do is explode all of my tags and then run the convertto3dsolids command.  This will convert all Autocad MEP objects into 3D solids.  Exploding the tags will convert them into regular blocks and break the connection from the mep objects.  This way when you convert to a 3d solid you can delete the original object. 

For the most part the export function works correctly but I have had problems with piping where it will export the piping objects as exploded linework in iso view instead of converting to a 3d solid.  In either case the end result is the same as your method.

As a side note, if you need to make a small change to a piece of equipment, i like to convert it to a 3d solid using the Converto3dsolids command, make the change using my 3D geometry commands, and then using mvpartconvert command change it back to a mvpart.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

I'll try that one. Didn't know about that command, but it sounds easy enough. I was not happy with Autodesk when they said 2013 wasn't backwards compatible...but figured there had to be a work around that they weren't sharing (we asked)! Not everyone is on subscription, but most everyone now draws in 3D, so it's important that I am able to share 3D drawings. I was just going to stay with 2012, but now I don't have to.

[#4]

CONVERTTO3DSOLIDS

This must be an undocumented command... no help anywere.

To do this, I would use EXPORTTOAUTOCAD, or EXPORTTOAUTOCAD(year)...

if you are in model space and in a isometric view direction you will get 3d objects in the resulting dwg file... also all of the other strictly MEP stuff is stiped away from the file... the command works with your current DisplayConfiguration... so if you are a plan view and your DisplayRep is set as intended by adesk (Plan Display Representations) then you will get a flattened 2d drawing. The help documents in 2013 do a good job of explaining this.