move drawing from paper space to model space 3

[grunt58]

I'm not sure if this is a SolidWorks question or an AutoCad question. We use SolidWorks to design with but when we create a drawing it gets saved as a DWG also. This is for people who are not familiar with SolidWorks. My problem is with multisheet drawings. SolidWorks saves the first sheet to model space and then subsequent sheets to paper space. How can I get the paper space sheets to model space? I've tried copy and paste but it changes the dimstyle i.e. fractional dims become decimal. I've been pasting as a block which works but then the other sheets are blocks.

Certified SolidWorks Associate
SW2009 X64 SP4.1
Dell Precision T3600
Nvidia Quadro 4000
Xeon 3.2GHz Quad Core, 8GB RAM
Win 7 Pro X64

 

[btrueblood]

Dunno, but try exporting each sheet as .dwg's one at a time?

 

[Pinwards]

I know nothing about SolidWorks, but in AutoCAD terms the CHSPACE command may help, though I'm not sure it's a magic bullet for your situation. It's useful if you have a viewport, you can then send entities from paperspace into modelspace (or vice versa) with the CHPSACE command and it scales up/down the entity automatically for the scale of the viewport.

#

 

[grunt58]

I have but when I paste them into the model space same thing happens, the dimstyle gets messed up. Fractions become decimal.

Certified SolidWorks Associate
SW2009 X64 SP4.1
Dell Precision T3600
Nvidia Quadro 4000
Xeon 3.2GHz Quad Core, 8GB RAM
Win 7 Pro X64

 

[grunt58]

I looked into chspace but to be honest I couldn't figure out how to use it. I'm not sure how to create a viewport in model space. I've been using SolidWorks for the last 10 years so I've forgotten what I did know about AutoCad. Took a new job last year which they use AutoCad as there standard drawing format.

Certified SolidWorks Associate
SW2009 X64 SP4.1
Dell Precision T3600
Nvidia Quadro 4000
Xeon 3.2GHz Quad Core, 8GB RAM
Win 7 Pro X64

 

[brandonbw]

Create the viewport in paper space. Right click on the toolbar, click autocad, and bring up the viewports toolbar. I like to drag that toolbar to the drawing area and not dock it. That's easiest to work with to draw a viewport and change scales on paper space.

Then use chspace to move the paper space info to model space. What happens when you do that?

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com

 

[cfee]

grunt58 -

The simplest way to get your objects INCLUDING your dimensions into MODEL SPACE might involve the "CHSPACE" command, but before we try that, try setting the dimensioning style to "ARCHITECTURAL": Type in the "DIMSTYLE" command. Select the [MODIFY] button, go to the [Primary Units] tab. See the Unit Format : "Decimal" ? click the down arrow and select the "Architectural" dimensioning style. Exit the Dimensioning style command, and try cut & paste from P-Space to the MODEL SPACE tab working area. If this doesn't get your items into Model Space fairly close to what you're looking for (dim sizes - arrows, text, etc.), you can try a CHSPACE option -

If the above didn't work for you, try this :
1. Don't fool with the toolbars until you are more familiar with them. Type in the needed commands until you've familiarized yourself with them- their options and their operations.

2. While you're in Paper Space, type in the command "DIMSTYLE". Make a mental note of the current Dimensioning Style. Notice the NAME of the style, highlighted in the left window of the dialog box. It MAY or may not be "Standard". DOESN'T matter. NOW click on the [MODIFY] button. Now notice at the top, all of the tabs containing things you can modify in a Dimensioning Style. Click on the [FIT] tab. Notice on the lower right area, a "Scale for Dimension features" area. This is where the dimscale is set. It may be set to 1. If not set it to 1. Make a mental note of this as well. NOW- click the [Primary Units] TAB. In the "Linear Dimensions" section, you MAY see "Decimal". Are your dimensions "Decimal" ? If they are "Architectural" but if (as you post) they're getting changed to "Decimal"'s, here's where you fix that. Click the down arrow, and select [ARCHITECTURAL]. This should fix the basic problem. I'll leave further refinement to your experimentation.

Ok, back out of the DIMSTYLE command now. This dimscale of 1 is the reason for a step to come in a moment.

3. Make a VIEWPORT around the ENTIRE contents you want to move to model space (MVIEW, then draw a rectangle). This includes the titleblock if you wish, even tho some people prefer to keep the title block, and all text and dimensions in paperspace, and have ONLY drawing geometry in model space.

For your situation, however, you will want to collect everything for the transfer to M-Space in just a moment.

4. Next, Click on the viewport, and set its Zoom Scale PROPERTIES to a scale of 1:1. This can be found down in the "Misc" section of the "Properties" box . Click on the word CUSTOM across from "Standard Scale", and select a fixed scale of 1:1. This step is VERY IMPORTANT.

5. Now return to the body of the drawing, and at the command prompt, type in "CHSPACE" (case doesn't matter). When asked to select entities, window the entities you want to transfer. Based on your post, that would most likely include the title block and all text and dimensions, along with the drawing linework. DO NOT include the viewport itself as a selected entity (hence the reason for NOT replying "ALL" to the select entities prompt). Once you're sure you have everything, INCLUDING dimensions, hit enter. The entities will be transferred to model space. They will be scaled to a factor which will maintain visual fidelity. Remember setting the zoom-scale "Property" of the viewport to 1:1 ? THIS was why.

6. Notice the dimensions retained their scale? Same reason. If you successfully changed the dimensioning type to the desired type (Architectural?) in the "Dimstyle" dialog box, your Dimensions SHOULD have retained very nearly their original appearance. Further refinement (like stacked fractions, etc.) is up to you. Experiment as needed.

7. Finally, click down on the bottom "Model" space tab to set you to be working in model space, and continue to fix up your drawing from there.

Good luck, and let us know how it went !

-C.

 

[racookpe1978]

Doesn't he have a problem if he "doesn't" have sheet one as a full model and the rest just paperspace views and details derived from the original full model?

I've never seen a real 3D not placed as the first sheet, first view (normally plan), first full-sized paperspace "population". Then, each subsequent detail is just the original full model only zoomed in and rotated and dimensioned to show some other small detail.

 

[cfee]

No, The requirement you're mentioning is slightly different from the one I answered from the original post.

In AutoCAD, Sheet one as the full model is the [MODEL] tab. There you will find the full 3D model, which will populate any P-Space viewport with the contents of model space, and allow you to zoom AT WILL, any point of view you wish in any PAPER-SPACE Viewport.

The idea in AutoCAD is that the 3D Model exists in Model Space (hence the name of the "Space") and that the paper drawings of the model occur in "Paper" space - again hence the name. The way I described this to my users was to think of paperspace as a sheet of paper between you and the model, with a hole you cut in the paper through which to view the model any way you want.

There was a time in the history of AutoCAD that 2D drawings were only drawn in MODEL SPACE (which was all that existed) and that title blocks, dimensions, text ETC., was scaled UP to cover the model that was drawn full size (1:1), and then the plot routine would scale everything back down to get everything onto the plot sheet (say 24x36 inches, for instance) "to scale". With the advent of PAPER SPACE, the overall process was simplified, and then simplified even further with the advent of "TABS". HOWEVER- and this is KEY: There can STILL be a strong case made for instances where the company wants its 2D views in MODEL SPACE, and I'm assuming, based on the direction of the initial post, that this is the case for the person placing the post.

The challenge of the original post was to try bringing drawing information saved to PAPER SPACE back into MODEL SPACE. I mention 2 methods, but highlighted in more detail a method which would allow the user to maintain scaling integrity of the drawing views as those contents were dropped "through" a Paper Space VIEWPORT into MODEL SPACE. This was based on a couple of assumptions -1. That the desire was for the drawing views to drop into MODEL SPACE (from paperspace) to 1:1 (full) scale - the only right way to do AutoCAD in MODEL SPACE, and 2. that apparent scaling of dimensions, text, etc., was important.

Both methods would still require some experimenting to get the final details just right, but with the second one, hopefully the scaleability issues were mostly handled, and (again hopefully) the result got things close enough to the intended target that the user could take it from there.

I hope this helps clear things up a bit. There is still alot left to be desired where ACAD M-Space & P-Space are concerned (for instance the PAINFUL process of auto-generating drawing views in paperspace) but with ACAD still being the most widely used tool for 3D and 2D Design & Drafting, these issues remain a challenge ! I prefer some of the more modern tools in use ( Inventor, S-W, S-E, Pro-E/CREO, etc) but I have to admit there's much relevance still, to some of these ACAD based questions and challenges. Shoot- MY employer has us using ACAD 2012 ! Ok, only a couple of versions out, but its not until 2013 that BASE and PROJECTED views with sections, etc., are developed well enough to use so we're still using FLATSHOT (!!!) because Solview/Soldraw (NOT SOLPROF an entirely DIFFERENT - AME- tool) don't seem to comprehend X-Ref's !!! Oh well ;-)

Good luck !

- C.

 

[racookpe1978]

Thank you sir!