Drafting Practice or Export from Tekla Issue?

[Bill Tillman]

I have an issue which I would like to settle. An associate of mine works mainly with Tekla. I asked him to export a portion of his drawing to DWG format. Here is what I get. The shape on the left is from the Tekla export to DWG. The shape on the right was created directly in AutoCAD.

 

The shape on the left contains 128 elements. You can clearly see that there are dashed lines below continuous lines, but more so, some of the dashed lines are only covering partially the length of the the lines they are under and there is more than one. Whereas the shape on the right contains the minimal amount of lines needed. There are only 18 objects in it.

 

This is not the first time I've run into this issue. So is it typical that when Tekla exports a line to DWG format it includes all these extra objects or is this just drafting practice of the Tekla users on the other end?

 

BTW, the gentleman using Telka on the other end of this conversation claims he knows nothing about any extra lines or objects???

Tekla Export Issues.dwg

[eldon]

I have never had the opportunity to work with a Tekla Export file before, so I had a look and have a few comments.

 

Overkill reduced the overlapping lines. The shapes are not exactly equal, and the Tekla corner radii seem to be made of straight lines with an arc!!

 

It must be the translation process that produces these oddities. So, forewarned is forearmed and run overkill on any future files.

 

 

[eldon]

I see also that all the lineweights are 0.00.

 

Must be the translation process that produces a pseudo AutoCAD drawing!!

[Bill Tillman]

Thanks Eldon. It's not really a matter of what's different but why it's different. The Tekla guy swears that he doesn't make objects which need the OVERKILL command on them to be efficient. In other words, he's telling me that Tekla is doing this when he exports it. Doesn't make sense to me but then again neither does the Tekla user.

[eldon]

I am sure your Tekla guy can do no more.

Being sceptical, I wonder if one company when writing a translation to an inferior product, do not take the trouble to be exact and try and incorporate some of their superior technology!!

[SLW210]

Pretty common problem for some non-Autodesk products when converting to .dwg.

 

That said, there could be some steps to take that can export them cleaner. Go to Tekla site and see if there is a forum or help file showing the steps to export cleaner drawings.