Losing color/materials on import of 3D DWG from AutoCAD

[ScottHeide]

I am very new to Navisworks, so I may be missing something obvious, but when I try to import (Append) our DWG files from AutoCAD, I completely lose the colors and materials.   We assign materials and colors via layers and the MaterialAttach command in AutoCAD and don't have any problem moving these files to Showcase or DWF viewer, etc.  

I included our material folder in the Material Search Paths option, but it didn't seem to help. 

See attached file for example images.

I can send an example DWG if that would help.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott

[lee.mullin]

If you open the Presenter Pallette in Navisworks do the materials appear there at all?

In the Viewpoint Tab under Render mode are you using Full Render?

How are the materials applied in AutoCAD, are they on Layer 0, or applied to a different layer?

[scottheide]

If you open the Presenter Pallette in Navisworks do the materials appear there at all?

          No.

In the Viewpoint Tab under Render mode are you using Full Render?

         When I use Full Render - I get basically a black screen (one part shows up - see attached file)

How are the materials applied in AutoCAD, are they on Layer 0, or applied to a different layer?

         In AutoCAD, we create a new layer for each color/material, like "Plastic-Blue", and a material is attached to the  "Plastic-     Blue" layer.  The material is a jpg and is put in our template folder.   I entered the folder where the materials are in the Material Search Paths option parameter

Thanks for any help!!

[lee.mullin]

Thank you for the files.

Firstly there's a ByLayer material that is created in the Presenter pallette, this is what makes the model look black, just delete this material. This has been passed to development.

The colors are the same as when we open the DWG in AutoCAD 2012 with no access to the materials from your network drive. Can you try exporting to NWC file from AutoCAD and see if the materials then export? You should check the Navisworks help files for details of how to install the NWC export utility if you haven't already got this on your machine.

[kjelljostein]

Hi

If you purge the Global materials in the dwg file before NWCOUT, the error will not appear.

Br

Kjell J Haugestoel

Sweco Norway