Hi Drakonsden, In the meantime you can use Draftsight (free). It has a PDF export filter that preserve 2d geometry quite well.

Marc

Hi Drakonsden,

> Will the import of 2D Curves in DXF or DWG be added to version 3?

I'm not sure yet. I can probably say probably not DWG - DWG is difficult to deal with since it is not publicly documented by Autodesk, so it requires some special libraries to really deal with it well.

For DXF, I do want to work a 2D DXF export during v3. I'm not sure about an importer as well - typically an importer is a lot more work than an exporter so I am uncertain at this time if I will be able to do that for v3 or not.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Dxf would be very helpful to all CAD users. I draw and model bridges as my work and bridge geometries can be very hard to produce. At work my main tools are AutoCAD and 3DsMAX, but out of office I use Moi3D, Modo etc. It would make workflow easier to get reference points/objects directly to Moi3D instead of making them all over from start. I know there is ways to import point/curve data, but those methods require exporting data from CAD software object by object - that is extremely time consuming. I do understand that making an importer would be also that so I just keep my thumbs up and hope for best =) You have already added a bunch of tools that make life easier.

- J-P

Hi J-P,

> It would make workflow easier to get reference
> points/objects directly to Moi3D instead of making
> them all over from start.

You can export solids from AutoCAD to SAT format which can then be loaded into the current version of MoI.

AutoCAD does not seem to export curves to SAT format but someone mentioned to be that recent versions of AutoCAD support IGES format again (after it having been removed for a long time) so try using IGES export from AutoCAD to transfer curves from there into MoI.

If that still doesn't work, you might try one of Sycode's export plug-ins for AutoCAD: http://www.sycode.com/index.htm - they have some plug-ins for writing to IGES, STEP, and SAT format out from AutoCAD as well but I don't know if they handle curve data or not.

- Michael

Hi Michel,

The company that I work for uses AutoCAD 2010 for production, how ever I can try IGES export after work hours. I am aware about SAT and have used it quite often.

Unfortunately creating solids from bridge geometry is not best option if that is only to be used as a reference or source data - points and lines/polylines are most efficient way. With bridges software must handle xy-plane curvature but also curvature in z/lenght-pane (sorry about clumsy terms). When we add changing slopes in both sides of this previous centerline and different widths from it to bridge eges geometry is quite hard. Almost forgot that cuts along center line are straight to z-axis and for that simple extrude is not an option. If this geometry is to be modeled in AutoCAD (as a solid) the result is a series of separate curved solids or solids that have planar faces. There is ways to find exact (evenly distributed) points for example centerline and with Moi3D you can create smooth curved surface that is very accurate. It really is faster to handle points and lines/polylines than surfaces or solids. If You ever make dxf import to Moi3D, one cool tool could be to change 3d-polylines to Freeform curves that go through 3d-polylines vertex points :)

I will test IGES, STEP and SAT. Thank You for quick answer.

- J-P