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Drawing Conversion from Arch.Desktop to ACAD2008

14 REPLIES 14
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Message 1 of 15
mbuk
298 Views, 14 Replies

Drawing Conversion from Arch.Desktop to ACAD2008

Hi,

I have a architectural background drawing which was originally done in Architectural Desktop (which version I am not sure). The drawing was full of AEC objects.
We have recently upgraded from AutoCAD 2000i to AutoCAD 2008.
I used MEP 2008 to export the drawing to AutoCAD 2008 and also used the AECObjExplode command to help migrate the drawing from Architectural Desktop to AutoCAD.
I then used the flatten and overkill commands to further reduce the drawing size. The drawing still seems slow to open. (This is not a large drawing to begin with.)
Are there any other tools, utilities, or commands that would improve the migration, and or speed up the opening of the drawing file.
This is only the xref background. We have not even begun to add our services.

Has anyone put together a lisp routine that will quickly convert drawings done in Arch. Desktop, Building services or MEP, AutoCAD 2008?



Any help and Advice is greatly appreciated.

Mark
14 REPLIES 14
Message 2 of 15
Luis Esquivel
in reply to: mbuk

Look for the command:

-EXPORTTOAUTOCAD
Message 3 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

I first used AECpbjexplode. Then ExporttoautoCAD. They helped a bit but not much.
Message 4 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

I also used `scalelistedit. There were no extra scales.
Message 5 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: mbuk

Mark,

With 2008 you should not need AECObjExplode. Open the ADT file in vanilla 2008 and
then just use -exporttoautocad.

Do it in WCS top view. Results will vary depending on the view. Example given an ADT
2006 model in 2008. If I run -exporttoautocad using an isometric view the result file
size is 850K. If I use WCS top view the file size is 200K.

Joe Burke

wrote in message news:5749334@discussion.autodesk.com...
I first used AECpbjexplode. Then ExporttoautoCAD. They helped a bit but not much.
Message 6 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

Joe,

What is Vanilla 2008?
Message 7 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

Joe,

I'm guessing you mean Standard AutoCAD 2008. I tried using the -exporttoautocad command. It didn't reduce the file size or help the speed. This was a small project. When we start working with large floorplans it's going to be really slow. I guess we're stuck with slower performance with 2008.

But thanks for the tip. I didn't realize you could export a drawing made using MEP from basic AutoCAD 2008.

Thanks for your help.
Message 8 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: mbuk

Mark,

Yes, I meant standard AutoCAD.

Have you tried running Overkill after -exporttoautocad?

Joe Burke


wrote in message news:5750360@discussion.autodesk.com...
Joe,

I'm guessing you mean Standard AutoCAD 2008. I tried using the -exporttoautocad
command. It didn't reduce the file size or help the speed. This was a small
project. When we start working with large floorplans it's going to be really slow.
I guess we're stuck with slower performance with 2008.

But thanks for the tip. I didn't realize you could export a drawing made using MEP
from basic AutoCAD 2008.

Thanks for your help.
Message 9 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

Yes. The order used was: aecobjexplode, -exporttoautocad, burst(aecobjects), flatten, overkill, and then purge. I also use a lsp routine called clear.lsp. It's function is to erase text entities which are composed solely of spaces. Perhaps it can to expanded to remove other blank entities left in the drawing. I've attached it. If you're interested take a look.

My guess is that Arch. Desktop/MEP etc.. leave all kinds of reference entries in the database. Even though there may not be many entities in the drawing the database is still huge.

If you know of any routines which can reduce extraneous stuff in the database, please let me know.

Thanks

Mark
Message 10 of 15
BillZ
in reply to: mbuk

You could try deleting the layer filters (if any).

http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1175212


Bill
Message 11 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: mbuk

Mark,

I doubt we can help, beyond what's been said, without an example file. I'm not sure
what the rules are these days about max attached file size here. Over some limit it
should be posted in the customer-files NG.

BTW, sorry I see you mentioned overkill in your first post.

Another thing you should try, if you haven't already, with the result file after all
the things you mentioned is wblock. I've seen cases where that dramatically reduces
file size and time to load.

Joe Burke


wrote in message news:5750720@discussion.autodesk.com...
Yes. The order used was: aecobjexplode, -exporttoautocad, burst(aecobjects),
flatten, overkill, and then purge. I also use a lsp routine called clearlsp. It's
function is to erase text entities which are composed solely of spaces. Perhaps it
can to expanded to remove other blank entities left in the drawing. I've attached
it. If you're interested take a look.

My guess is that Arch. Desktop/MEP etc.. leave all kinds of reference entries in the
database. Even though there may not be
many entities in the drawing the database is still huge.

If you know of any routines which can reduce extraneous stuff in the database, please
let me know.

Thanks

Mark
Message 12 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

Thanks, I did that too. See attached lsp. ButThanks
Message 13 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

Joe,

I tried wblock as well. I even tried saving the file as an R12 dxf. All of these things have improved the speed of the file loading, but it still seems to be slow and the corresponding file size - large (10 meg) for this size of drawing.

How do you get to the customer-files NG? What's the file limit?

Mark
Message 14 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: mbuk

Mark,

What's the size of the original ADT example file?

Joe Burke


wrote in message news:5750951@discussion.autodesk.com...
Joe,

I tried wblock as well. I even tried saving the file as an R12 dxf. All of these
things have improved the speed of the file loading, but it still seems to be slow and
the corresponding file size - large (10 meg) for this size of drawing.

How do you get to the customer-files NG? What's the file limit?

Mark
Message 15 of 15
mbuk
in reply to: mbuk

Joe,

The original file was 10 meg. The architect had drawn workstations that had 4 levels of blocks within each block and with the lines of each block - bycolor. Each workstation block and each block within, had a different name.
Changing the blocks to the colors and linetypes of our office standard, required exploding the blocks. I originally thought the blocks were 3D objects, but they were already flattened to 2D with the multiple lines on top of each other. After exploding the blocks, the file increased to about 35meg. After deleting the duplicate objects, and using the other methods mentioned, it was reduced back to 10 meg.

Mark

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