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#23341 by Mark Toce
Tue May 01, 2007 2:50 pm
The new Smart entites in DataCAD 12 are not compatible with DataCAD 11, so any Smart entities used in your drawing will be ignored if you Save As DatacAD 11 AEC format. If you have used any Smart entities (walls, doors and windows) in your DataCAD 12 drawing, you will need to extract the 2D information, the 3D information, or both, before saving the file to DataCAD 11 AEC format.

This process is also necessary before exporting your drawing to DXF or DWG for use in other applications, such as AutoCAD or SketchUp.

:arrow: To extract the 2D information from your Smart entities:
  1. Choose Extract 2D\3D from the Tools pull-down menu.
  2. Toggle Extract 2D on from the left hand menu.
  3. Choose the Smart entities from which to extract the 2D information using the Entity, Group, Area, Fence or Mask selection methods.
  4. Choose Continue after you have selected the information. This completes the process.
DataCAD will automatically create new layers with the same names as the original layers that contain the Smart entities, but with "2d_" appended to the front of the name. For example, if you had Smart walls on the layer "1-Wall," a new layer named "2d_1-Wall" will be created, and it will contain the 2D information extracted from your Smart walls.

:arrow: To extract the 3D information from your Smart entities:
  1. Choose Extract 2D\3D from the Tools pull-down menu.
  2. Toggle Extract 3D on from the left hand menu.
  3. Choose the Smart entities from which to extract the 3D information using the Entity, Group, Area, Fence or Mask selection methods.
  4. Choose Continue after you have selected the information. This completes the process.
DataCAD will automatically create new layers with the same names as the original layers that contain the Smart entities, but with "3d_" appended to the front of the name. For example, if you had Smart walls on the layer "1-Wall," a new layer named "3d_1-Wall" will be created, and it will contain the 3D information extracted from your Smart walls.

Although DataCAD 12 uses the same *.AEC file extension that DataCAD 11 uses, files saved from DataCAD 12 may not be opened in DataCAD 11 directly. It is an easy process to Save As DataCAD 11, however.

:arrow: To save a drawing from DataCAD 12 for use in DataCAD 11:
  1. Open your drawing in DataCAD 12.
  2. Select Save As DataCAD 11 AEC from the File pull-down menu.
  3. Supply a new name for the drawing and click Save

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