Dimension scale when exporting to .dwg

Hi,

We often need to export 2D engineering type drawings, drawn in Rhino, to .dwg for sending to clients. There have been a number of bugs in Rhino 6, that I have been hoping will be sorted out in Rhino 7. I test them now in Rhino 7 WIP 7.0.20042.9575, 2020/02/11, and some have been fixed but there are now others. I will list these issues under seperate topics to keep responses clear.

We very often need to create a 2D drawing in model space, and not use layouts (or paper space as it is called in AutoCAD). So to create a detailed view, we make copy of the 2D curves (in model space), and scale those curves up by the factor of the detailed view we want to show. Then to dimension that detailed view, we set the length factor of that dimension style to 1 / the zoom factor of the detailed view.

When opening a 2D drawing exported from Rhino 6, or from Rhino 7 WIP, in a .dwg program like Draftsight, NanoCad, or AutoCAD, that Length factor of the dimension style is not exported to the .dwg file:

The result is the dimension are all incorrect in the exported .dwg file:

Exporting from Rhino 5, did not have this issue. The first time a part was fabricated off a drawing exported from Rhino 6, we had major problems to sort out. The only work around for us is to export drawings from Rhino 5! It would be great if this issue can be sorted out in both Rhino 6, and Rhino 7.

I know it is intended that 2D drawing detail views be done in Layouts in Rhino, and doing it that way, that Length factor export to .dwg is not an issue, but many of our clients, and our suppliers work with detailed views scaled up in model space, and we need to be able to sometimes stick to this format.

Does no one else have this problem?

1 Like

We still have big issues with this problem. If a drawing dimensions are shown in Rhino correctly, but then have the incorrect scale when exported to .dwg, then this is surely a bug. Especially as it was correct in older versions of Rhino (3, 4 and 5).

Please can developers check this in new releases. This error has caused our clients major cost and rework in the past. It must surely be simple case of remapping that Length factor field property correctly.

I’m having the same issue. Had to export to .dwg for employer, but things kept scaling improperly. Had to DIM everything manually in inDesign since I didn’t have time to find a workaround. Good to know Rhino 5 files export properly, but very frustrating as that adds time to a simple export job.

Hello - are you also exporting dimensions that have a length factor?

-Pascal

Hi All,
Can we get a small file that will show us this issue here?
A file with only a few dimensions that will show the issue will be perfect.

As far as I can tell, we have images but no 3DM.
Rhino 5’s dimensions and text were no connected by a annotation style.
They were much simpler, so I am not surprised that you do not have the issue in Rhino 5.

If we export this 3DM to DWG (2007), the .1 linear factor overrides on the dimensions will be lost?
And what happens if you set the .1 linear factor in the Annotation style.

Here is my
Here is the exported DWG in AutoCAD with the .1 linear factor override successfully imported.

IM me if you want to try the release candidate of sr10 which is what I am using.

Thanks for your help and the 3DM.
If we can duplicate the issue here, we can get it fixed.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Fugier

Hi Mary,

Thank you for looking into this now. It looks like this dimension scale issue has now been sorted in a previous update, which we are very grateful for!

I still have another issue with exporting drawings to .dwg described here: Annotation leader issues when exporting to .dwg

Can you take a look at this? It seems like a simple color assignment issue to fix.

Best regards,
Shawn