Sheet size when exporting to DWG

[Anonymous]

I have created custom title block families for paper sizes A3 through A0, but when I export any sheets with these title blocks to DWG and open them in AutoCAD, the paper size in the layout is A1. How do I fix this without manually editing the page setup in AutoCAD?

[nmarcelis · Accepted solution]

I think that the default printer setting in AutoCad determines the page layout when the RVT to DWG is opening in AutoCad

[lionel.kai]

can you provide step-by-step? I know how to set it for an individual layout, but not default

[lionel.kai]

BTW, I tried editing the acad.dwt template for new drawings (C:\Users\lionel\appdata\roaming\autodesk\autocad 2018\r22.0\enu\template), but still got same result (letter size paper to "fit" scale, even though template's paperspace tab layout is set to "ANSI D (34"x22")" size paper and 1:1 scale).

[Anonymous]

How did you solve your problem? - I have the same.

[lionel.kai]

Even Autodesk support was clueless about how to fix this... no idea why the above was marked "Solved".

There's a Revit Idea: Add paper size option on DWG Export command

So we "get" to vote for it in the hopes that they'll fix it one day... oh joy.

[Anonymous]

Whaaat? - I have no words to say how dissapointed I am - Revit doesn't have basic functions to use it..

[lionel.kai]

Confirmed with the OP that it was marked "Solved" because there is NO solution (not because he found an answer).

[robertovalentino]

Any update on this?
Autodesk.... always a step behind!!!!!

[lucdoucet_msdl]

I'm at a loss to understand why this is an issue.

Neither Revit or Autocad has the ability to automatically detect the sheet size of a sheet (in Revit) or a layout (in Autocad). And while it is possible to manually assign a sheet size to an Autocad layout, it isn't a feature in Revit (see How to print different page sizes or orientations in one file in Revit)

Then why would you expect the Revit export process to be able to know what sheet size to assign to the Autocad layout? 

Am I missing something here?

If you are asking for Autodesk to add a new feature to Revit, I would recommend your post it to the Revit Ideas discussion board and:

• upvote the already existing idea called "Printing/Publish based on sheet size"
• add your own idea that by adding a page size parameter to sheet views, this could be used to assign a paper size to the Autocad layouts when exporting to DWG.

-luc

[lionel.kai]

@lucdoucet_msdl The idea is linked to in one of my posts above.

It's really not that hard to understand: printing, making a PDF, etc. gives you a "page size" pull-down. Why not export?

And while that should be fairly easy for them to implement, it also shouldn't be too hard for them to go the extra mile (for us) and just auto-detect the size from the 4 "Titleblock" lines in the Titleblock. If there's more than one on the sheet, or there are more lines in the family, they could go with the extents, or just "give up" and ask the user, but it would still put us in a better position than we are now (and might help regain a little respect for Autodesk).

[andybrack]

When exporting to DWG from Revit, Revit reads the default plot style from AutoCAD so it's VERY hidden and not intuitive by any means.  If you need to adjust the default you can do the following.

In AutoCAD:

-Navigate to File --> Options then Plot and Publish in Autocad

-Set the Default Output Device to "DWG to PDF"

-Select Add or Configure Plotters

-Select "DWG to PDF" from the list.

-This opens the Plotter Configuration Editor. Change the paper size in Device and Document Settings. 

-Once you've done that export from Revit. If multiple people are working on the export process, each user will have to do this on their computer.

Note that Revit automatically sets the Plot Scale in the resulting DWG file Page Setup for the Layout to be 'Fit to Paper'. So if you have any content in Revit that is hanging off the page (visible or not, like Crop Boundaries) then it will affect the Plot Scale in the DWG file. To fix that you have to open up the Page Setup in AutoCAD change the Plot Scale to 1 : 1. See attached image. This is very tedious if you need to do a lot of sheets.

-Andy Brack

[robertovalentino]

@lucdoucet_msdl 
with all my respect:

"Then why would you expect the Revit export process to be able to know what sheet size to assign to the Autocad layout?"
Because you set it up in Revit. I do expect Revit "to be able to know" the content of the page I want to export along with the size of the sheet. No rocket science here.

"If you are asking for Autodesk to add a new feature to Revit, I would recommend your post it to the Revit Ideas discussion board and:

• upvote the already existing idea called "Printing/Publish based on sheet size"
• add your own idea that by adding a page size parameter to sheet views, this could be used to assign a paper size to the Autocad layouts when exporting to DWG."
  

Done!! many users did it but what we got is a bunch of unrequested nice-to-have

If you had to export to DWG 200 or more sheets and you had to rely on those exports you would definitely understand why this is an issue.

thank you so much for your point of view anyway, I can see its value
regards
roberto

[lucdoucet_msdl]

@robertovalentino 

As you may already know, the PDF export for Revit 2022 has an new option to create a page size based on the sheet family or view size.

Export a PDF File

Hopefully, the PDF export functionality may lead Autodesk to incorporate it as an option for exporting to DWG when creating the paperspace tab. To encourage other users to upvote this functionality request , here is the link to the Ideas Forum:

Add paper size option on DWG Export command

-luc

[erodriguez5YNP8]

The solution provided above is correct.  You just need to know how to mange your settings.  First, make BLUEBEAM your default plotter for your AutoCAD.  Second, manage your plotter settings to the paper size result you need your "EXPORT TO DWG" file to have (If you select ANSI D, your plotter, printer and page setup settings in Revit and AutoCAD must all be consistent and have the 22"x34" paper size).  Check out the ADVANCED settings.   There is also an ADD-IN in Revit "CHANGE SETTINGS" that I used to manage the Bluebeam settings.   I did all the configuration and it worked.

[yislerivero]

It working for me, thanks a lot!

[joseph_schwabNGN5U]

Thank you, this solved my issue. Revit appeared to be plotting/exporting incorrectly and it was simply an issue with AutoCAD option setting.