DesignWorkshop

Exporting PowerCADD to Design Workshop?

Gary Veasy says:

Here is what works best for me.

Turn off all the layers except whichever wall layers you want to import.

Select all and then select "Attach". This is the absolute easist way to do it. Unfortunately thorough evaluation might be prudent here. Layers will be more effective if you think about respective wall heights. If certain walls that will be 8' are attached to those that are taller or shorter you are sunk. You will only be able to extude this object as one object hence one height. You CAN cut the wall but its too much work. Therefore layer all walls of the same height on the same layer so they can be extruded once in DW as a whole. Also, doors can be attached so they are then extruded up in DW w/o drawing anything.

Another thing I do is draw rectangles over door openings for the head of the door. This is obviously on a file that I have duplicated. Drawing any pony walls or partial walls, including the portion of the wall at the head of the door will allow quick extrusion once in DW.

Once in DW, select these rectangles, select z value as 6'-8", select vertical ht. (1'-4" if 8' wall) and you're done. All this is done in the info box.

I also think about horizontal surfaces that are usually not drawn in plan. I include a ceiling, floor and roof layer so that these can be selected and extruded quickly in DW. Part of the reason I do all this is that it is easier to do in PC. PC is CAD and DW is not. The accuracy and speed is better achieved in PC.

Turn on all layers you want to import and delete the others becasue I seem to recall they all will come in whether shown or not.

Layers are important. You might want to think of grouping objects of like material in groups too. This way if they need to be, they can be easily modified in one action. You may feel like a civil engineer who is on Autocad ( Man, they use a lot of layers don't they?) but the more layers you use the better in the long run.

As for DW pict vs dxf, I think the key is that the pict will not retain layers as I recall. I have started using dxf as my PC layers will come in by name and you won't have to start all over.

In the pict option I have to use the pict as a template to model over (if I have not attached my lines or used polygons in PowerCADD). If I have attached or used polygons, I then have to cut the objects to a new layer in DW for more effective manipulation of the model. You can see how much more work this is that the aforementioned method.

Happy to help anyone jumping into DW. Also, the Board address for DW is: http://www.DesignCommunity.com/forum.html if you are interested. It is a little quieter over there but I would urge those curious about 3d to have a look or at the User Gallery: http://www.DesignCommunity.com/user_gallery.html.

If you have questions post here, or post them on the DW Board.

-- Gary Veasy

 

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