Topo cad drawing not visible in Proposed Site Plan

[micah]

Hello,

I have placed a topo .dwg file in my existing site plan (since the site is existing at the time of the survey). However I cannot see the topo in my Proposed Site Plan, even though the VG settings in my view template show that the imported file and elements are set to be visible. Any ideas? 

If Autodesk can make it easier to trouble-shoot these visibility issues in the next release, that would save me soooo much time in the future. These black holes of search for what should be there are extremely frustrating and time consuming. 

BTW, in my unsuccessful attempt to solve this with online searches, I saw posts that suggest looking at Phase settings on the topo cad file. However, there are no such Phase settings that I can see when I select the topo. I'm in version 2017.1.

Thank you in advance for the support of this forum community. Without you guys I'd probably be trying out Archicad on a Mac.

[ToanDN]

Did you import it with the "visible in current view only" unchecked?

[micah]

Maybe, unintentionally if I did. How can I check for this and change the setting?

[ToanDN]

Go to 3D view and check if you see the import?

[micah]

I do not see the import in 3D, only the existing site plan view.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

I suggest you re-import it, make sure that box is NOT checked.

[micah]

Thank you @ToanDN. I will do that if there is no way to simply reload or change a setting that manages visibility, assuming I had painstakingly checked that box (pretty sure that's what happened). To re-import the topo means re-aligning with Project North/True North, etc. That is a harsh penalty to pay for checking the wrong box, so to speak.

@Autodesk - can you please address this in subsequent versions? Importing and aligning topo cad files has been a very hard to learn process, and if you can do anything to simplify this, that would be great.

[micah]

As a stop-gap, perhaps @Autodesk can provide a warning for that "Current view only" check box, and that the consequences are harsh if choosing incorrectly. Autodesk responded to my previous request for a warning in the printing dialog box, WRT the "Create separate files..." radio button. At least I will give myself credit for requesting that fix!

A better solution would be a quick way to change visibility settings in views after importing .dwg files with "current view only" mistakenly checked. That box, by the way, is inconveniently off to the left side of the dialog box - easily missed if you ask me.

Anyway, thanks again @ToanDN.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

@micah

The problem is when you check that box, the CAD file is imported as detail lines, not model lines.  Detail lines only show in the View they are imported in, and more importantly, they don't provide any 3 dimensional information such as topo elevations.

What you can do is to rename the CAD file, open the existing Site Plan where the old import is visible, re-import the renamed CAD file with the box NOT checked, then use the old import to align/relocate the new one.  When done, you can delete the old import.

[micah]

Thank you for the explanation @ToanDN. I would have never known this nuance. In that case, perhaps a fix would be for Autodesk to import .dwg files as model lines whether or not that box is checked.

Anyway, I like your work-around, which is sometimes the best you can do with Revit.