Copy/Paste 2D lines from Rhino to Autocad

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

I read somewhere that Rhino8 can copy 2D drawings into autocad without exporting to DWG. I downloaded the evaluation copy of Rhino 8 (I bought 7 in September), but copy/paste to Autocad doesn’t work.
This is a lifesaving functionality, and I want to understand why is not working. I have Autocad 2024 LT, but I tried also with ZWCad 2024.

2

Hi Andrea -

Where did you read this?

We have that feature request on the list as RH-72725 Support Copy from Rhino V8, Paste into AutoCAD
-wim

3

in the first post [Weekenlwk] write: “It’s awesome to see objects can be copied/pasted directly between Rhino and CADs software. But the new feature of object-level linetype scale in Rhino 8 seems not be able to copy to the entity linetype in the model space in CAD by both copy/pasting and exporting methods.”
So it’s possible?

5

It is possible and I got this somewhat working, but there are outstanding bugs where this feature doesn’t quite work with certain types of geometry. I also have only tested with AutoCAD and not with LT or ZWCad

6

Hi Andrea -

Based on what Steve just wrote, please post a 3dm file with geometry that you can’t copy-paste to those other applications so that we can get this on the list of things to look at.
-wim

7

I can’t copy anything, not even a single line. Every time I get a bitmap

8

I just tested and can verify this feature is not currently working.

9

Is it possible to see this implemented in the future, also in Rhino 7?

10

This will not be implemented in Rhino 7. I am hopeful to have this working at some point in the future in Rhino 8 at least to some degree. I did have it working at one point in time and will need to see what changed.

11

I found a workaround with a python script. This script exports the selected objects in a DWG without asking for a name or a path, so the process is fast. The path is the same of the opened 3dm file, and the name is automatically generated using the actual time. Copy/Paste would have been a better solution, but this is quite good for me.
this is the script, for those interested:

import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs
import scriptcontext as sc
import Rhino
import os
import datetime

def export_selected_to_dwg():
    # Ask the user to select objects
    objects_to_export = rs.GetObjects("Select the objects to export", preselect=True)
    if not objects_to_export:
        print("No objects selected. Export cancelled.")
        return

    # Get the path to the current Rhino file
    current_file_path = rs.DocumentPath()
    current_directory = os.path.dirname(current_file_path)

    # Create file name with current time
    current_time = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
    filename = os.path.join(current_directory, "exported_" + current_time + ".dwg")

    # Save selected objects in DWG
    rs.EnableRedraw(False)
    rs.SelectObjects(objects_to_export)
    cmd = '-_Export "{}" _Enter'.format(filename)
    rs.Command(cmd, True)
    rs.EnableRedraw(True)

export_selected_to_dwg()

to create the script in Rhino, run the command EditPythonScript, paste the script, and save the file.
Then create a button that search for that script, in this way:
_-RunPythonScript ""PATHOFTHESCRIPT""

12

Hi @stevebaer
I found some interesting workaround here that you probably paste and get the geometry back if try to open a new tab in AutoCAD and copy something, after that copy objects again from rhino when getting a image.

I am not sure with what is going on at the background, but it will finally return what I want. Hopefully this is a thread for you to check.

By the way, can it be enhanced to add a variable for manipulating if always adding a parent layer for all copied layers from CAD, and then remove the parent layer when pasting to AUTOCAD. This would be awesome for organization for drawing. Or is it possible to expose to API to call in c#?