7.5. Importing DWG/DXF file as plan with interpretation<br>

## 7.5. Importing DWG/DXF file as plan with interpretation

A building base plan (plans of floors of the building) is necessary for designing radiant heating systems, and it is used during heat loss calculations. The base plan can be drawn directly in the program with the use of available components, or it can be imported from a DWG/DXF file with walls, windows and doors interpreted. During import appropriate layers are marked, from which the complete structure of the floor is generated – walls, windows and doors are inserted into the worksheet in the form of objects (the same as those inserted during manual creation of the base plan) and room structures are generated on their basis.

The file is imported into the current worksheet. Select “Import building plan from DWG/DXF file” in the “File” menu. A new window is opened, where the file on the disk can be selected (the contents of the file are displayed in the upper right corner). Click the “Open” button. When importing for the first time, you will be prompted to specify the font file used in the project (with .shx extension). You can indicate a file on the disk – it can be provided with the project or it can be saved in AutoCAD folders. If the file is not available, click the “Cancel” button.

The file import window opens. All drawing layers included in the loaded file are displayed on the left side. A preview of the imported file is displayed in the upper main window of the screen. Buttons for viewing and moving the drawing and for measuring the lengths of components in the plan are locayed in the upper left corner of the svreen – these functions are enabled only after selecting the drawing unit of measure.

The drawing unit of measure is selected from a drop-down list box under the buttons. The unit must be appropriate for the actual dimensions of the object. The dimensions of the drawing, its width and height in DWG/DXF file units and in metres, are displayed below.

! The selection of the drawing unit of measure, appropriate for the dimensions of the actual object, is important with regard to the graphical editor, which always displays and reads dimensions in metres. Therefore the imported drawing should be properly rescaled.

When you press the right mouse button within the drawing preview area, a pop-up menu is displayed, which – in addition to viewing the drawing – enables selecting display options, that is the background colour and toggling between Paper <-> Model.

¨ To move the drawing preview press and hold the left mouse button and move the drawing in the desired direction. During this operation the mouse pointer takes on the following form: .

To move to the next import window click the “Next” button in the upper part of the screen. The next stage is the selection of layers with walls. By default no layer is selected. Marking a layer blue causes it to be displayed as a broken line. Only after putting a tick in the box, the layer is displayed permanently and components of that layer are selected for interpretation.

By default walls drawn with two lines are interpreted. If more lines are used for a wall, these may be misinterpreted. In such case click the button, move to the drawing preview area and mark the “multi-line” wall. The preview of the marked area and result of interpretation is displayed in the lower part of the window. Several characteristic fragments of walls should be marked – this way drawing types are created for walls in the file.

If a wall drawing type has been marked unnecessarily or improperly, it can be deleted. In such case mark that drawing type in the “Selected wall types” and click the button.

In the upper part of the window the wall thickness range must be specified (minimum and maximum value). If the project includes ventilating or chimney ducts, the wall thickness must be approprietely increased so that these components are interpreted properly. You can make use of the “Length measurement” function here.

To move to the next import window – the window and door interpretation window - click the “Next” button. At this stage mark the layers with windows and doors, enter appropriate value in the “Window width range” field. You can make use of the length measurement feature and select the highest value among all window and door widths – this must be rememberd about particularly in the case of double doors.

In the “Window and door types” in the “library” mark all types of windows and doors that are identical in drawing terms with those present in the imported drawing. Remember about marking double doors, if the project includes this type of doors.

To better see the components in the drawing use the buttons for magnifying and moving the preview in the upper part of the window.

After checking the selection of interpreted windows click “Next” to move to the last import window. Here you select the layers that are loaded as a drawing, meaning that they are not interpreted. By default all layers are marked. When you press the right mouse button in the list of layers the options “Select all”, “Deselect all” appear. If the file is loaded with interpretation there is no need to load all layers again as the drawing background. You can abandon loading any layers at this point by clicking “Deselect all”. Or you can select only those layers that are necessary to append the graphics of the background drawing (e.g. stairs, furniture, etc.).

After clicking the “Next” button, the drawing is interpreted (which may take some time to complete) and loaded into the project. Percentage of the interpretation completed is displayed, and when this is complete, an appropriate message appears. Click “OK” and the file is loaded onto the “Structure” layer of the current worksheet. Walls and rooms defined thereby are displayed on the screen.

Quality of the interpretation depends in the first place on the quality of the DWG/DXF file loaded and on the interpretation options set (particularly the available wall thicknesses and widths of windows). Best results are achieved when walls and windows/doors are included in separate layers.

If the interpretation is not completely proper, you can make manual adjustments, such as drawing a wall, inserting a window or a door, etc.