CAD to Revit and Back Again

Recently we ran into an issue with our title blocks. We had a company logo that had originally been created as an AutoCAD block using hatch, plines and splines. The .DWG was linked into our Revit title blocks and all was well and good……until it came time to export back out to AutoCAD for a consultant. The .DWG logo erupted into a mess of bizarre geometric shapes (think Picasso’s Cubism art), and a chorus of groans from our production department. It also happened whether we plotted to a PDF or straight to the plotter. We had our reseller on speed dial, our IT department checking graphics cards, and I’m fairly certain there was significant searching on the CAD forums. It didn’t seem like a fairly common issue at the time, so we had to improvise. And fast! (This stuff always happens closest to deadlines…it’s Murphy’s CAD law.)

designcube

So, how did we fix it? Simple, really. We went back to the original .DWG logo and created an image. We then inserted the image into the Revit title block. Logo image plays nice with Revit and the plotters, and doesn’t mind being exported back to CAD. Just make sure the image resolution is high enough to keep the integrity through the process (minimum 300 dpi for plotting). Problem solved.

2 Comments

  1. Simon Weel

    Instead of linking the dwg, why not import the dwg logo into a Revit title block family?

  2. Kimberly Fuhrman

    Thanks, Simon…that is the way the dwg logo was originally imported. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. Same effect. I think it had something to do with the SPLINEs used in the logo.

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