Preparation
To make sure you don’t lose data and to streamline the import process, you should prepare your CAD file before you begin importing. This will also resolve potential conflicts between CAD elements and the SketchUp engine. Make sure you keep a backup of your DWG for safety.
Replace Unsupported Elements
If your CAD drawing has unsupported elements in them, as listed above, you should try to simplify them into basic CAD entities that SketchUp would support. Exploding them often works.
Get Close to Origin
Try to make sure that the geometry starts at, or is very near the origin point (0,0,0). Sometimes, actual drawing geometry can be very far away from the origin of the drawing in case of large projects. For example, a construction site blueprint or model, where the actual buildings start far away from 0-0-0. If you import that directly into SketchUp, it will invariably cause performance issues. You will need to move the actual geometry on or close to origin to prevent this. Alternatively, you may choose not to preserve the drawing origin while importing; SketchUp will choose the starting point as best it can for your drawing.
Reduce File Size
You should not face any problems while importing if the CAD file size is less than 15MB. Above that, there may be severe performance issues or even the import may fail. Also, the smaller the file, the better SketchUp will be able to work with it. Therefore you should try to reduce the file size as much as you can before importing. You can try to remove the geometry you don’t actually need. Also, if your DWG file has multiple levels each holding tons of details, you should export each level into its own file and then import them when necessary.
Published By
Arka Roy
www.sketchup4architect.com
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