Topic Title

We would like to have the same line types on both platforms so we can work back and forth with our engineers and be seeing the same thing on out respective screens

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Maybe - but it's not where you can simply add the linetype definition into Acad (it don't work dat way!). I've never been able to do it successfully but maybe there's another user who has and can provide a tutorial on how to do it.

It is possible with some effort. I can outline the details but might need some tweaking.

1. Create a new drawing (without using your default drawing).

2. Load your custom linetype one at a time using the Linetype manager. NOTE: Do not use multiselect to load all linetypes together. Keep track of these linetypes names on a paper in the order you are loading as you will need these names later. Close the linetype manager by clicking OK.

3. Draw one line of each of the linetypes loaded.

4. Click on File-Export-DWG-ON Layers. In the file dialog make sure "Translate user-defined line types to continuous line definition" is turned OFF and enter dcadlines.shx as the filename (at c:\ for example). Make sure c:\dcadlines.shx exist on the disk before proceeding further.

5. If you already have shx2shp.exe skip to step6 or download shx2shp.exe ( available inside zip file) from
ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/utilprog/shx2shp.zip (this is gui version) or search google for more options.

6. Decompile dcadlines.shx to dcadlines.shp using the above gui version. Your older DOS version will need command line parameters to decompile the shx to shp.

7. Open this file using notepad only.

11. This file will look something like this

Code: Select all*5,25
2,8,(2,0),1,8,(0,-100),1,8,(66,0),1,8,(0,100),1,8,(-66,0),2,8,(2,0),0
*6,25
1,8,(0,50),1,8,(35,0),1,8,(0,-100),1,8,(-35,0),1,8,(0,50),2,8,(100,0),0
*7,37
....


12. Each shape starts with star '*' character. There is no name associated with these shapes. Now append the names one by one (in the order you added your linetypes) so that the above file looks like

Code: Select all*5,25,LINE1
2,8,(2,0),1,8,(0,-100),1,8,(66,0),1,8,(0,100),1,8,(-66,0),2,8,(2,0),0
*6,25,LINE2
1,8,(0,50),1,8,(35,0),1,8,(0,-100),1,8,(-35,0),1,8,(0,50),2,8,(100,0),0
*7,37,LINE3


13. Save and close this file. Copy this file to ACAD's Support folder.

14. Using Notepad only Open Acad.lin or create a new dcad.lin file from ACAD's support folder.

15. Repeat for each linetype you want in ACAD, add the following lines by replacing LINE1 or Line2 with your linetype name at both places. This linetype should be present the dcadlines.shp file.

Code: Select all*LINE1
A,0.0001,[LINE1,dcadlines.shx,s=.001],-0.25

*LINE2
A,0.0001,[LINE2,dcadlines.shx,s=.001],-0.25

and so on


16. Save and close this file.

17. Launch ACAD and create a blank drawing. At the command prompt enter "compile". Select dcadlines.shp from Support folder. A new file dcadlines.shx will be generated.

18. You are now ready to use your DataCAD linetypes. Simply open Linetype manager and load from either acad.lin or dcad.lin (as in step14).

Devinder -

I followed your instructions and have tried out my lines. They wind up with a solid line at the beginning and at the end - is there a way to get rid of these?

Does your line definitions start with a pen command? From my understanding of ACAD reference it seems it does not allow the first definition to be a pen up command and thus you end up the solid line segment. In my code i had used 0.0001 so that the pen down length is not big. If you try to use a negative number in .lin file, then on loading the line you will get an error message. Currenly i have no ideas on how you can resolve this issue.

export your datacad drawing w/ a line containing the properties of each linetype you want. autocad will make a shape file to duplicate these linetypes.

ive found it easiest to create a dwg w/ all the linetypes in my support folder then do a block insert to get all the linetypes. that way you get only one shape file thats always in the same location.

Thanks for the help. I went with the simple step for now of making a file with the line types and exporting it into AutoCAD. Just a note for any one else on the subject I found that in AutoCAD the ltscale needs to be set at 1 because datacad will reset it to that when it imports a file.

The linetypes from DataCAD need to be adjusted in AutoCAD however.

Imported data cad linetype styles need to be reset in the properties box. The linetype scale needs to be adjusted to 8 to match the scale in data cad.
- If the linetype scale is at any other setting the lines will be scaled wrong when they are imported back into datacad