Linked CAD breaking when project is opened or when reloaded.

[ldaenen]

Hello Having a wild problem with CAD Links from Sketchup.

I'm trying to develop construction details from this 3D stair that was linked from Sketchup.

everytime I reopen the file or reload the CAD Link all the geometry of the stair goes haywire. The first two images show the stair gone wrong the 3rd shows what its supposed to look like.

The Sketchup stair is very well organized with components. scaling functions were used on some of the components.

The linked cad is connected to a autodesk docks cloud model and the sketchup file is an absolute link on a Google Drive cloud (I can't figure out how to make it relative it doesn't seem to give me the option. )

Any help is much appreciated.

[chubbard]

Consider exporting the SKP to DWG and linking that way. Had many issues with SKP files losing some or all of their geometry. 

[ToanDN]

What about export from SKP to DWG and link the DWG in Revit?

[ldaenen]

Hey Thanks Chubbard,

What DWG version did you save it as?

I've tried that before and it didn't seem to work .

[chubbard]

Whichever is listed in your current Revit version, and or Sketchup. They are all pretty much the same, and only change every 3 years. So 2015, 2018 should work with most current Revit versions 

[ldaenen]

Thanks,

I tried the DWG before i discovered you could go direct with sketch-up and am rediscovering a bunch of problems I had going the DWG route.

All of this text shows up in the model naming bolts I  had in the model at one point but since deleted and there is no way to take the text out it seems.

[chubbard]

I would assume its on its own layer? Could either hide or delete that layer? Can you see these texts in AutoCAD? Remove them there and reload? 

[ldaenen]

The text is in groups and if i try to delete it it deletes geometry -

[ldaenen]

I was able to delete some of the text on the sketchup side but i dont have access to autocad at the moment.

Some of the text I can't delete.

Also the Linework tool doesnt seem to work on DWG's

[barthbradley]

Can you post this CAD Link from Sketchup here for testing?  

[ldaenen]

Thanks for offering to have a look.

I'm not able to attach as its a bit to big  but here is a  link :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10xfAlaBLT0f886hRNGOI2rtr5ZkqRKY4/view?usp=sharing

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

What about bringing it into a Project by way of a Loadable Family?

Attached RFA contains your SKP stairs.  

[ldaenen]

hello thanks I'll try using it as  the family ....  I had been loading it as a Generic Model via the Model In Place Component which I researched to be the best approach.

What are the limitations or capabilities of loading it as a family ?

Disaster has struck again and this time I've lost allot more work because all my Dimensions referencing the linked cad  and Line weight changes have disappeared ! .   The only way I can think of   continuing to working on it knowing it will break almost once a day is to take dimensions from hidden lines instead of model geometry and and use masking regions on everything instead of using the linework tool

I've also had to reinsert the linked CAD countless times which his a massive time sucker.

[ToanDN]

Dimension to Import/Link drawings is a big No.  Import the DWG in an external or in-place family, place ref planes in the family where you want to dimension to, and dimension to the ref planes in the project.  A benefit of it is you can set certain ref planes to Center plane and your dimensions to those will show centerline pattern.

[barthbradley]

All I know is that I got the best results by loading this specific SKP into a Loadable Family Template and then into a Project. However, I didn't test it extensively, so maybe it will blow up too.   Honestly though, I would never use SKP Stairs in my BIM Model because SKP Objects have no BIM Value. But I do use SKP objects for things like pillows and pool floaties and other "embellishments". 😉    

[ldaenen]

Thanks The Family version is seeming to work well so far.

 If I load it into the project does that mean the stair exists inside the project without needing any external links (just checking)  --

I tried to model this stair in Revit also and couldn't get enough resolution.  I could have sculpted the components as mass's but it would be really hard to make them parametric and BIMish.

Thanks

[chubbard]

Yes create a new generic model family, insert the SKP into the family and load it (no linking) into your main project where the dimensions and tags will live. At this point it will not be linked at all. 

Downside is to update the stair you have to open the family delete the SKP and put a new one in there and reload the family. That will probably break all the dims again, unless you follow the above and set ref planes in the family to dim to. As long as those remain your dims will as well.

If the stair is DONE feel free to load, place and dimension. 

As barthbradly said this causes problems and would create the stair in native Revit. Either using tread components or as a generic model so that changes will be updated in the main model. CAD is always an issue in Revit because of its singularity rather than an assembly of other flexible elements. 

[ldaenen]

Thanks I'll try to  take this all into consideration before starting projects

can i use hidden lines instead of reference planes to dim to ?