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#68450 by GARY247
Thu Mar 24, 2016 9:14 am
Is there any way to convert an imported drawing that is 3d to a 2d drawing in datacad without exploding it into a thousands of entities in order to modify any thing?
#68468 by GARY247
Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:31 am
Actually I did not know it but it was drawn in Datacad 3d. Does the HLR still pertain?
#68469 by Roger D
Mon Mar 28, 2016 9:40 am
The only real difference in 3d vs 2d is 3d entities have a z-base/height to them I think.
You could do a quiick change and make both Z base & Z height =0.
If you are referring to smart walls, there is a command under Tools to Extract 2d/3d, and it puts the items on new layers_2d named.

What issues are you really having?
#68471 by GARY247
Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:09 pm
When I use 3dlincvt it increases the size of the file substantially. How do you convert doors drawn in 3d to 2d so that the arc is one line?
#68483 by Neil Blanchard
Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:34 am
Arcs and circles and text are the exceptions - these have to either not included in the process, or traced / reproduced afterward to fix 'em.

HLR converts polygons and multiple overlaid lines to a single line for each. It can weld together butted lines, too.
#69135 by ORWoody
Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:30 pm
I may be running too late for this to do you any good, but "next time...."

As Neil mentioned, arcs, circles, ellipses, text and dimensions present a bit of extra work in the 3D to 2D process. Fortunately, DataCAD has a way to make that almost no problem at all. When you get ready to do the hidden line process, save your file. Then:

1. Create three new layers.
2. Using Mask for arcs, ellipses and circles, move all of those to the first new layer.
3. Using Mask for text, move all text (notes, room names, room numbers, door numbers, etc.) to the second new layer.
4. Using Mask for dimensions, move all dimensions to the third new layer.
Turn off the three new layers.

Do the hidden line removal as planned and save that to a new layer. When you do that, DCAD queries you so you don't have to add a new layer before you do the hidden line removal.
Save/export the layer with the 2D linework. If the arcs and circles were all on a single layer originally, you may want to save the arcs-circles-ellipses layer.

Use Ctrl+Z to go completely back to when you did that file save mentioned above.

You can then create a new clean file and import the 2D linework into that. You will be missing the arcs-circles-ellipses so create a new layer and import the layer with those on it. Note that at this point, the hidden line linework and the arcs-circles-ellipses may not be positioned correctly so with layer search off, move the hidden line linework to the correct location relative to the arcs-circles-ellipses. The reason for this is because you want your new drawing to work with all of those dimension and text positions in the original drawing. Save the two layers of this new drawing. Or you can move the arcs-circles-ellipses to the hidden line linework layer and save only that one layer.

Now, you go to the original file and import the one or two saved layers. This is why you moved the hidden line linework into the correct position with the arcs-circles-ellipses so that titles, text, dimensions, etc. of the original drawing don't have to be manipulated.

You will need to update your GoToViews to have the new lines show instead of the original 3D.

Even though this may seem like a lot of work, it takes less time to do than you might think. The good part is that everything can be edited as you normally do and you also do not have to do a lot of redrawing. You may even want to delete those 3D layers after you've checked to see that all is correct.

Good luck,
Woody

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