Help?

[Matt]

When importing dwg files, WYSIWYG lineweights are turned off by default in my version of PowerCADD.

Is there a way to have them turned on by default? This is a woeful pain in the asterisk. Huc, are you there?

[GaryV]

Matt,

I think perhaps what you are looking for is the color to lineweights option? Click on options when the first window pops up and then select this option.

Of course, this does not work if they have been inconsistent in their use of colors and this might not be the way you want to set up your drawing. Candidly, I have tried and not been successful using this option. However, ideally, I think you would ask the ACAD user what their color>lineweight settings are and then duplicate them in this window.

Not sure if this will get you there or not. Have others had success using this?

btw, this is for V7. Not sure how the "more elegant" V8 translator differs.

-Gary

[Matt]

I'm on 8.

[GaryV]

I assume the feature still exists in 8 or was it removed?

[Matt]

Here's what I am talking about in the current (I think it's current) release of PowerCADD. The top is the Drawing Setup in my Untitled default stationary file.

The lower is the Drawing Setup after importing from a .dwg file. Some settings have been changed in the process, and I'd like to have control over that, in particular when I am importing numerous .dwg files, since PowerCADD's import doesn't understand ACAD layer setups as sheets, a single ACAD file might have ten different sheets, all of which must be imported separately.

Engineered Software must have research that supports the view that their customers are either independently wealthy, or immortal, and do not regard their time as having much value.

Is anyone aware of a way to change this, other than switching to different software?

[GaryV]

Matt, I may be wrong but I do not think they actually draw using lineweights in ACAD. Am I wrong? I thought they assigned weights to colors as a separate exercise that may not survive an import into PCAD? The fact that WYSIWYG is grayed out suggests everything is the same lineweight so there is nothing to show. Not sure here, just a suspicion.

When you turn it on afterwards are there multiple weights visually or only if/when you start drawing?

-G

[Matt]

Gary, I don't know what the hell they do in AutoCAD. I want to see the lineweights in documents that I import -- I get them, and have to adjust the lineweights, and I find it helpful, when doing that, to have WYSIWYG lineweights turned on. It's convenient.

For some reason, PowerCADD, when importing a .dwg file, changes this setting in my workspace, and I must manually reset every one of them. This is tedious, particularly when processing batches of files -- I may get four documents in AutoCAD and each document might contain as many as 10 drawings which must be individually imported because of a deficiency in the PowerCADD translator.

I find this work tedious, and was hoping someone might know of a way to set the dwg import to NOT behave as it does. Knowing that my death approaches, I do not have the luxury of time that angels have, and would prefer, if given the choice, not to spend my valuable and dwindling seconds devoted to repeatedly resetting the checkbox in the dialog box that shows up when you click the tab after clicking the Menu item. In fact, if my faith is placed in the wrong things and the Justice of the Almighty determines to send me to the sixth pit of hell, I imagine that one of the more excrutiating vocations that I will be tested with for eternity to come is importing .dwg files into PowerCADD.

I wish it didn't do that.

[jasonlocher]

basically what you need is import preferences.

I still can not grasp why the vertical axis is backwards - this should be on by default when importing dwg's, or we could just turn our monitors upside down.

[Matt]

when you import a .dwg file, PowerCADD uses your default stationery. Import preferences would be nice, but for starters, I'd like Import to respect the preferences I have. The mindset revealed in the latest releases, and the techniques of release, indicate that it's a poor strategy to ask for any dramatic improvements, and we're expected to chirp like full baby birdies when tiny flaws known for years are eliminated.

I'm going to get a lecture from someone telling me you'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but I have lost the sense in the past couple years that Engineered Software is interested in improving their product. It's too bad because it is a fabulous piece of software when it's coupled with WildTools.

Look at what's going on here in the forum. Nothing. I guess those of us who use the software are delighted with it. It works pretty well, I guess it works good enough.

[oldguy_longley]

[pbacot]

I've seen ACAD's screen lineweights, and, unless there's been improvements recently it's not wysiwyg. Just a crude approximation. Something PC might still have over ACAD.

Hi Matt. Gary. Commiserations.

Peter

[patrickm]

Not directly related, but...
I don't import DWG files into PC all that often, but yesterday, I imported a survey using PC8. I was really impressed with how well it came into PC. The text came in as objects and wasn't editable (I think due to some setting that I made in the past) which was great -- I want the survey to be "static". I remember the old days of postage stamp imports and this import was totally painless. I had it imported, cropped, gray-scaled and dropped behind my site plan in no time.