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strange dwg troubleshooting

Anonymous

strange dwg troubleshooting

Anonymous
No aplicable

Hello folks, 

 

Have a few problematic dwg files from an engineer we are working on a project together. They weren't saved with autocad but with a custom program I don't know of nor have access to the originials so cannot skip corners there: need to work with these dwg files and we need those data desperately. 

 

The dwg holds 3D data of a model.

It is built up of individual triangle faces -mostly of the same material. 

 

And even worse, each and every object is placed on their own layer, resulting the dwg having a wobbling 39000+ layers in the document. 

Tried merging the layers with the layers panel before but it melts my processors and autocad freezes. 

 

So how to deal with the situation?

 

Have seen a way to export each layer as an individual file -as suggested here, downloaded a vlx file (which I haven't used yet, have to learn more about the how-to-s).

Then, it would be merging those individual files into one but with each file merged to the same layer? 

 

Had seen this topic on this forum, confirming that theoretically it is possible to merge cad files -though it may need dwf instead of dwg so would also need some sort of a script to batch convert those 39000+ dwg files to dwf before and

yet not sure if that file merging would merge objects onto one layer only.

 

 

Can you give me a hint if it is possible and/or if there is a more reliable workaround I can pull off?

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Soluciones aceptadas (1)
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16 Respuestas
Respuestas (16)

pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend
How many layer are you selecting at one time with LAYMRG command in AutoCAD? try no more than 10-20-30 or so at time instead of all 39000 at once.
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john.vellek
Alumni
Alumni

HI @Anonymous,

 

I see that you are visiting as a new member to the AutoCAD forum. Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

 

This sounds like a big task.  What are the 3D triangles? Are they 3D Faces? can you use union to combine some?  

 

What is the final intent of the model (solid, meshes, other)?  I agree with Dean that limiting how much you try to handle at any step willl make a big difference.

 

if you would like to share your file so I can investigate other options, please attach to a post or email me a link to it at john.vellek@auotdesk.com

 

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

 

 


John Vellek


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gotphish001
Advisor
Advisor

30 layers at a time is a lot of times to get to 39,000. I think maybe you need a non paid intern for a week to do this for you. :cara_sonriente_con_la_boca_abierta:

 

 To limit what you are sharing from clients, can you just copy a dozen of these triangles into a new drawing and post it here so we can see exactly what you have?



Nick DiPietro
Cad Manager/Monkey

Anonymous
No aplicable

Thank you for the quick reply! 

 

Dealing with the document manually is a mess. Almost anything makes autocad hang/crash. Sadly it is no use - nor the amount of manual work it'd take can we afford the time to. As in general designing, we are too close to deadlines.

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Anonymous
No aplicable

Thank you for the warm welcome!

 

Honestly the last autocad version I was using regularly was of 2006 LT -now, all of a sudden I need to clean up this dwg in autocad 2017. 

Not even familiar with the interface, never used autolisp before. 

Eventually I'm aiming to get the 3D out of the dwg that we can load in into archicad. Meshes would be enough, at this point I can't be sure if it ever was a solid object.

 

Intended process is something like exporting to fbx>>>converting the fbx to obj>>>removing doubles in blender, exporting 3DS>>>importing as object.

 

Sorry but I can't share the file in public. 

 

Also as an update, could export each layer as a separate dwg file. 

Just guessing at this time, batch converting the dwg-s to obj files would be the best. (And batch importing to blender right after.)

 

 

Will try messing with yet another lsp file, that I found here.

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Anonymous
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Thank you for the reply! 

 

What a senseless waste of human life it'd be. We sent another message to the designer requesting an obj file instead. That would be the fastest -exporting to separae files took about 4 hours.

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Anonymous
No aplicable

Here is a zipped folder of 100 files out of the 39000+.

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pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend
You and the designer have a lot to talk about... Good luck.
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john.vellek
Alumni
Alumni

HI @Anonymous,

 

I am working through the file you sent.  It is enormous and is really taxing my laptop.  I am grabbing small bits of geometry at a time and moving to a new file.  Once there, I select it, change the color to bylayer, move all of it to a unique single layer and then run Mesh Smooth to convert the faces to meshes.  This does seem to work quite well but it is obviously a laborious method.


John Vellek


Join the Autodesk Customer Council - Interact with developers, provide feedback on current and future software releases, and beta test the latest software!

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Anonymous
No aplicable

Thank you for looking into it! 

 

My other approach was opening trying to open the whole dwg with 3dsmax and export it to an obj for further processing. 

After about 40 minutes gave up on it -while it was at 25% of the loading. 

Then, got a script for batch importing dwg-s, maybe it could help speeding up the process. Apparently force quit after waiting another 40 minutes for loading in 10000 dwg-s; next I'll probably start loading in 1000 dwg-s the max tomorrow to see if it works -and hope in the mean time the original designer would send over an obj file instead. 

 

(And there is another file of the same kind still waiting for the year 2060's processing power.)

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Anonymous
No aplicable

Probably still processor melt material but what about change one item to the layer you want.

 

 

Command: 'MATCHPROP

Select source object:
Current active settings: Color Layer Ltype Ltscale Lineweight Transparency Thickness PlotStyle Dim Text Hatch Polyline Viewport Table Material Multileader Center object

Select destination object(s) or [Settings]: S

 

In Settings Untick everything except Layer

 

Select items in several window selections? maybe a 1000 at a time?

 

Might work

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john.vellek
Alumni
Alumni
Solución aceptada

Hi @Anonymous,

 

I sent my completed version of the file to my A360 site. I sent you a link to the file as it was too big to email. Please let me know if you were able to download and open it. And then, if it worked for your purposes.

 

 

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.


John Vellek


Join the Autodesk Customer Council - Interact with developers, provide feedback on current and future software releases, and beta test the latest software!

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Anonymous
No aplicable

Hi John, 

 

Thank you for that! 

Haven't seen your reply with the download link, sorry about that. 

So worked on with what I had at hand.

As the designer of the file didn't sent a reliable obj file upon further, specific request, just this cluttered mess of a dwg. 

 

In reality it was a design of a waterpark slide. 

There was a separate file for the slide and for the steel structure. 

Yesterday I split/batch exported the dwg of the slide to separate dwg-s by each layer, then batch imported 1000 dwg-s into 3dsmax.

Exported the result as 20 separate obj files, that I imported into blender to join them together and remove doubles. 

 

Today, worked on the steel structure in a different way. 

Opened it in 3dsmax first -started opening at around 9:50 am and it opened fully around 1:00 pm. 

Then exported it to an obj, which only took 2 minutes. 

Opening it in blender, removing doubles -ending up with a file of 137000 faces. 

 

The main target tool was archicad. It takes downloading a goodies extension pack from graphisoft to be able to import 3ds files...

so the target format had to be 3ds. 

Then learned that there is a 64000 max face limit for models to be saved as 3ds. 

Added a decimate modifier in blender so now both half of the slides and the steel structure is built up only of 60000 faces. 

You can imagine how horrible it looks -topology is off, faces are missing, non-manifold everywhere. 

 

Tomorrow I'll continue the following route -opening a dwg file made from batch importing the remaining exported dwg-s from yesterday with 3dsmax, 

exporting it to obj and processing the obj in blender. 

I assume 3dsmax can do the same as blender however I'm not familiar with max's functionality. Had only ever used it for a day some 15 years ago? 

 

 

All in all the flaw was relying on simple functionality that can process layers in small numbers -theoretically autocad can merge layers the first place-. 

Then, batch exporting was a life saver -or was it. If one can wait 3dsmax to import a dwg file, it's pretty easy further on. 

So probably modifying the codes of the batch exporter autolisp file could serve as a middle ground -splitting a dwg to separate ones with a set number of layers.

 

Best would have been if autocad offered a way to export obj files. Somehow exported fbx files are outdated and not compatible with blender, and, judged by the other experience autocad would hang upon saving.

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Anonymous
No aplicable

Thank you for your file!

Couldn't download it previously and got further on a different route.

 

Yours does look perfect although I had to go with the cluttered low-res one this time as described in my previous post. 

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Kent1Cooper
Consultant
Consultant

Even easier on AutoCAD, I would think [I haven't set up a comparable test situation], than LAYMRG or MATCHPROP, would be [if you haven't tried it already] CHPROP / select everything / Layer / [whatever Layer you want].  Or even just pre-select everything, and in the Layer pull-down pick the Layer you want.

 

These approaches won't eliminate all the other Layers as LAYMRG would, but you can PURGE them afterwards.

 

You could do it in chunks if it can't handle it all at once.

Kent Cooper, AIA
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john.vellek
Alumni
Alumni

HI @Kent1Cooper,

 

I tried to do this in the existing file but found that even simple tasks overwhelmed my computer. This is why I ended up with a 2nd  drawing to place content into and in which to modify layers.

 

 

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.


John Vellek


Join the Autodesk Customer Council - Interact with developers, provide feedback on current and future software releases, and beta test the latest software!

Autodesk Knowledge Network | Autodesk Account | Product Feedback
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