Publish to DWG

Use this to send a plan presentation in Quadri to a DWG file where the original presentation settings are as well-preserved as possible. CAD DWG drawing files (.dwg) are used in architecture, civil engineering, design, and mapping industries. Use this to send a plan presentation in Quadri to a DWG file where the original presentation settings are as well-preserved as possible. 

Use this procedure:

1. Follow the general steps in Publish to File.

2. Specify DWG options described below or in Publish Settings. 

3. Click Finish.

1. On the ribbon, select Output and then the drop-down arrow above Publish (beneath DWG). 

2. Select DWG. The ribbon updates to show DGN-specific publish options:

• • • Task section

    • Selection section

    • Delimination section

    • Settings section

    • Solid accuracy section

    • External Delivery section

    • DWG Preview section

    • Finish section

3. In the optional Task group, click Templates and select an option:

• • • Default Publish to DWG - 

    • Imperial (US Survey Feet) - 

    • Imperial DWG - 

Give the task a Name (or accept the default).

Add your publish task as a Subtask of a summary task.

Click Documentation and use the dialog to enter descriptive text and attach reference files related to the import task.

4. In the Selection group, select a pre-defined Plan Presentation to draw from.

• • • Active View - Use the active view that is open.

• In the Delimitation group, set a delimitation for the publish to DWG. Click the drop-down arrow for Query Methods:

Note: All objects that are partly or fully inside the delimitation will be exported with the full geometry. 

• Dynamic Query (see below)

• Select Objects - 

• Clear - 

In the Dynamic Query dialog, …

5. Click Close when you are done.

6. In the Settings group, select a color strategy to define what color the CAD features (not the CAD layer) will be drawn with:

• • Draw in 3D - Select if you want the data to be drawn as 3D data. If not, all DWG entities will be drawn with z-value = 0.

• Use ByLayer Color - Draws all CAD features with 'ByLayer' colors. 'ByLayer' refers to the color defined in the CAD layer.

• Use Global Color - Draws all CAD features with the same color. Then click Set Override Color and choose the color to draw from the color palette below the drop-down list.

• Set Color to Object - Draws the CAD features based on the 'Fill Color' defined in the drawing rule found in the Presentation Setup.

• Select a schema for the Layer standard - mapping. - This option is only available when what to draw is based on a pre-defined plan presentation or when the active view is a plan presentation. The drop-down list shows the available schemas.

• Click the settings gear/cogwheel for Layer standard - mapping (only available when the selection is a predefined plan presentation). In the Layer standard - mapping dialog, it is possible to make connections between the presentation setup used, and the layer name to use in DWG.

Warning: The CAD layer names are defined in the Layer standard - mapping, mapping each drawing rule found in the presentation setup to a specific CAD layer name. If a drawing rule has data to draw, then a CAD layer name will be created and the color on the layer will be set to the Fill Color found in that specific drawing rule.

Note: If two or more drawing rules that contain data to draw are drawn to the same CAD layer name, then the Fill Color of the first drawing rule will define the color of the CAD layer.

7. In the Solid Accuracy group, define the accuracy of the solid features.

• • • Number of Segments - 

    • Interval (ft) - 

    • Tessellation - 

8. If needed, choose an option in the External Delivery group, 

• • • None - Save the file somewhere locally on your machine, which is the default.

    • Upload to Trimble Connect - Select any of the projects you have in Trimble Connect and save to Trimble Connect Cloud Servers.

    • Upload to ProjectWise - Login and provide your information to Bentley ProjectWise to save the file to their cloud servers.  Note: This option requires the Quadri Connector for Bentley ProjectWise.

9. In the Finish group, click DWG preview to open a 3D View will open, showing you the features you selected in 3D.

10. Click Finish.

DWG-specific Notes

Tip: If you run AutoCAD in parallel with Quadri, you can from the Novapoint menu inside AutoCAD, use an alternative command to draw a plan presentation from the Quadri model found in the Novapoint ribbon.

• When objects in a model are connected to their respective process codes, you can use this intelligence in the model when publishing to DWG. For this format, you can set up multiple combinations of Code and Description found in classifications so that DWG layer names and LandXML object names are named according to classifications.

• When you Publish to DWG, you can use attributes to create CAD layers. In the example below, the added attribute is Feature Name, meaning that the CAD layer for the selected point will be “TerrainPoint 21”. You can create CAD layers based on all feature types and

• When publishing to DWG, you can use the … Setting to exclude features that do not belong to any classification tasks.

• When you Publish to DWG, use Annotative symbols and Annotative text to …

• In Publishing to DWG, when a presentation rule is saved to the plan presentation task, then the layer mapping is selected.

• When you import a DWG, the height offset applied is remembered when doing new imports.

• Published DWG includes symbols in Geotechnics boreholes presentation.

• By conversion, we mean to translate the information from one structure to another one. The conversion rule defines the source information of a given category should become the target features of a given category. Simply said: A polyline in a DWG drawing, placed on a layer named GuardRail, should become a GuardRail feature type in the Quadri model.

Export of objects with classification codes

• When objects in a model are connected to their respective process codes, you can use these when exporting to DWG and LandXML. For these formats, you set up combinations of classification and description, so that, e.g., DWG layer names and LandXML object name is named acc. classifications. 

To produce a DWG file with process codes in the layer name, you must start the function export to DWG on the delivery menu. This functionality is only available in Classification.