Batch Conversion to ACAD

[aromech]

Has any one found a good batch converter from Solidworks Drawings to ACAD drawings that maintains the proper Sheet scale so when it gets to acad the geometry is 1-1. I have gone through about 4 of them and they all seem to export it to scale in ACAD or just take the scale of the first drawing and export it.

We will run about 100- 200 sheets at a time and this gets time consuming when you have to click the sheet scale every time.

I have tried Creating Macro's and VB code to do this but I cant seem to get past the confirmation box that pops up during the conversion stating that drawing views on sheets are scaled differently. The other option would be to some how turn this dialog confirmation box off.

Any Ideas

Thanks
Fred

 

[SBaugh]

The SW04 Task Scheduler Exports SW files to AutoCAD as DXF or DWG. There are Options you can pick from like Version, Font, Linestyles, Custom Map file, and Export drawing Sheet (All sheets, Active Sheet, Sheets [XXXX]). You can schedule it to do it a certain time and date.

The TS does more than that but it only comes in the SW Office collection.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[aromech]

Thanks, Scott
Unfortunatly we cant seem to get the TS to export sheet scale vs view scale. There does not seem to be that option box? It always seems to default to view scale which does not create a 1=1 ACAD file.


Thanks
Fred

 

[dogarila]

Have you tried PAC4SWX from

http://swtools.cad.de?

 

[SBaugh]

I'm running Version 1.0 and if you click on Tasks\Export Files the options button is avaiable next to the Advanced button towards the bootm of the menu.

I agree though the 1:1 Scale output should be avaiable. Just as it is in the SW options menu. It has everything else but that option. I might be assumed to though. You would need to get clarification from SW on that.

PAC4SWX - from what I have read here in Eng-tips it works really well. I have never need to do anything like so I can't speak from experience.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[aromech]

I have tried the PAC4SWX software about a month ago, so forgive me my details are a little sketchy or if they have a new revision.
I really liked the software except it still did not handle the 1=1. But I was able to almost get it to work by creating my own macro to batch convert. The only problem was getting the batch to run past that darn "views are scaled differently" dialog box.

The software was really easy and fast to setup other batch macros. I reccomend playing with it if you havent yet.

Fred

 

[rocheey]

If someone wants to talk me thru attaching a file to here somehow, I have a macro that does this on a fairly regular basis.

Since the macro also uses a form (pops up a window allowing user to select which SW sheets to export), I have to attach the whole .swp file. Also, it uses early binding on Acad 2000, so that way the references will come in as well.

It exports each selected SW sheet as a compatible dwg, then imports each dwg straight into a new Acad paperspace sheet, naming it the same as its corresponding SW sheet.

Its also good for "round tripping", where you can re-import
the multi-paperspace acad dwg as an 'unlinked', multi sheet SW dwg.

 

[aromech]

This sounds like it would be quite helpful, I would like to try it out, but I dont know if you can do a file attachment on this forum.

Did you write the code or was it downloaded from another site that I could go and get it from?

The other option would be to cut and past the macro module and form code to this thread and I could just re-create it.

Regards
Fred

 

[dogarila]

rocheey,

I would like to see that piece of software too. Can you send it to the second email shown in my personal profile?

Thankx

 

[aromech]

rocheey
Email is a good idea, click on my profile and send it to the address shown.

Thanks
Fred

 

[dogarila]

rocheey?

 

[berlitz]

Sorry for reviving this old thread, but this sounds interesting. I havn't played with the 1:1 output issue lately, so may be there might be a solution now.

The problem I had with the 1:1 DXF export setting is (was?) that unfortunately there is a bug with the export setting if you set 1:1 and use the sheet scale as the base factor (at least since 2001Plus, where I first discovered this). I got an API related SPR (#132909) for this.

The problem is, that with the "1:1" option set in the export dialog SolidWorks will ALWAYS use the last setting for the basic scale UNTIL you open the export dialog again. Then the basic scale is reset to the current value.

This is also true if you try to export the sheets or multiple drawings manually WITHOUT reopening the export dialog for each sheet again. May be it will help if you also send this as an error report, so SolidWorks will finally fix this :-(

On the other hand you (Fred) said you got a solution with your own macro. I had a request from one of your colleagues (Shawn Wolters) for PAC4SWX, may be you can give me a hint how you did that.

To avoid the messagebox ("views are scaled differently&quot just set the "silent" key with the SaveAs command.

I would be more than happy to get a working solution for this issue and to implement it in PAc4SWX, for it looks like this is not a high priority for SolidWorks (bug is still there in Sw2004).

I'm looking forward to your help,
Stefan


--
unofficial german SolidWorks helppage

http://solidworks.cad.de

Shareware, freeware, tools and macros

http://swtools.cad.de

 

[aromech]

Stefan
Sorry it took awhile to get back to this thread. I have been out on a project. I finally gave up on trying to get my neat work around going, it still had bugs. BUT I did get this rather simple one to work using the Keystroke command.

Dont laugh to hard when you see it , it works and really does save some time. ------

Dim swApp As Object
Dim Part As Object
Dim boolstatus As Boolean
Dim longstatus As Long, longwarnings As Long
Dim FeatureData As Object
Dim Feature As Object
Dim Component As Object
Sub main()

Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

Set Part = swApp.ActiveDoc
SendKeys "%{f}{a}%{t}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Enter}%{P}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{S}{Enter}%{S}{Enter}"

End Sub

How we use it is open up the files we want to convert and run the macro manually. The only thing we ran into is conflict of some of the guys "ALT" hot keys. And you have to start with the Scale 1:1 option saved from the prior SLDDRW open / close session.

Unfortunatly I cannot get it to work with PAC4SWX. It keeps trying to default to a TIFF export when I run it as a macro? And when it does work it seems to close prematurly.

Maybe you can help me to get it running.

Regards
Fred