Importing DXF fails

[javaguy]

Attached are the following projects:
Apt_2Win_A and Apt_2Win_B: These are front and side of an apartment block. The lines are where I place windows, doors and (horizontally) cut lines. I plan on adjusting the front/back of certain lines before I print. These illustrate the Paper Tools offset problem.
trypattern: I imported the DXF file into MB using 1.6.16. I resized it to suit and positioned the top of the pattern in the middle of the page. My problem here is the print routine. The left border is honored but not the top. In print preview and in printing the file for real (I used Bullzip to print to a PDF) the pattern is printed to the top of the page. I want to reserve the top of the page to match the roof on (some other page).
trypattern.pdf: The result I get for printing from the trypattern project.

I was aware of WinTopo from your hints page. That is how I created the WMF file that crashed your Corel Draw 14. I might use GIMP + WinTopo instead of DrawPlus, as the latter program has its problems...

I'll see how this building plan works for me.

[javaguy]

Following my example, I've taken the trypattern project and added some pictures to it. I partially filled the skeleton with bricks, a window and a storefront. I printed the result to a printer (Bullzip PDF). The result is the PDF that is attached.

The PDF only has the skeleton plan. The graphic elements are missing. When I try "Clear Plan" from the Plan menu, the plan goes away leaving just the building. Buy my guide lines aren't printed and won't come back (it is "Clear", not "Hide").

It seems that using a building plan is for lines that don't need to be on the output.

[evande]

let's leave Bullzip out of the equation please. I do not know it and it might have issues we do not know about. We often use primopdf and there is a thread about that in this forum you can search. But we cannot possibly test all of the pdf generators out there.
Let's work with mb4, we know that. Have you tried printing direct to your printer from Model Builder? The pdf step is not really needed unless you are doing something else with the generated pdf's?
When you go to print, there is a question that should pop up in Model Builder that asks you if you want to print both plan and building. You have to check both to get both printed. You did not see this prompt on your screen?
If you checked off both and did not get both when using Bullzip it may be that pdf generator. Try printing directly from Model Builder, we tried your attached file and printed both plan and materials after checking the appropriate boxes.
I am glad that version 1.6.11 is now correctly importing your .dxf files.

When you drop a building plan on screen in Model builder it is moveable until you lock it in place. The plan on the mb4 I opened was top=0 so while the plan was Unlocked you could have moved it down. Go ahead and unlock the plan by going to "Plan">"Unlock Building Line Diagram" and move it down the page to where you desire.
Regarding page margins, you should set the page margins in File>Project/Page setup, video #5 covers margins among other topics.

I opened the 2 mb4 files consisting of lines you drew. When drawing a line down the page, I suggest drawing one single line down the page instead of one line per each floor. Or use brick or trim to mark the line the whole down the building or better yet, fill in the whole wall to the dimensions needed. Better than a window made of 4 lines why not just put down a window? Or a rectangle to mark the spot. And there is a pre-connected triangle made for marking roof peaks instead of 2 angled lines.

I looked at your mb4. If I were building this building I would not use the building plan as you are drawing the building twice, the lines step can definitely be skipped. Take a look at the tutorial videos #2,3,4 for ideas on how to design on screen.

[javaguy]

With the print dialog, in my project I left both checkboxes blank and the program said "you have nothing to print". I had to leave something checked, and so checked on the "plan". I then got just the grid of lines of the plan, and no brick, etc. As far as printing with this or that PDF printer, I don't think that they change the equation. But when I get to a place with a printer I can try this again.

I'll try the lock/unlock and see how I fare.

The point of the Apt_2Win projects was to make a building that can be sliced by floors. One game I run might need a 3-floor apartment, another a 5-floor one. At some point in the construction process I'll cut my walls at the marked places. In these projects, where I used the Paper Tools, I created one floor (5 lines and two windows) and duplicated them. So the "many lines" aspect is the result of how I created the floors and my inexperience. The double-verticals represent where I will glue on a corner wrapping (I'm currently influenced by stuff from scalescenes.com). I'll cut out the windows and insert tranparencies, etc., later. So I need lines somewhere to help that process. I'll try the rectangles and the built-in peak tools later.

The building isn't shown twice, but has a different front/back. So I've one page with front and back, and another with the side (with peak) and some accessory parts. I don't want to design on screen because I'm scaling buildings off of old WW2 photos. Every customer has his quirks!

What I haven't seen in the image library are nice bordered windows like the ones in the attachment, which is the building I'm modelling. I'll work on that later.

[javaguy]

Somewhere, I put up a post and it got lost...

The attachment contains files:

The Apartment...D.dpp is a DrawPlus project.
The Apartment...D.png is a picture created by DrawPlus from that project.
The Apartment...D2.dxf and Apartment...D2.wmf are conversions by WinTopo. I can't get either to display within a MB project.
The Apartment...D.dxf is an image created by DrawPlus from that project.
The Test_Apartment...D.mb4 is a MB project from that DrawPlus image. *That* imports.

I scaled the plan to match the line dimensions within the DrawPlus project, yielding width of 6.66 and height of 7.78. If you do the same, note how the grab handles on the plan match the top & left border and not the bottom & right border.

I then positioned a material image over it, sizing it the same as the line dimensions. The top & left lined up, but not the bottom & right. That gap on the bottom & right, about 0.03 inches each, matter.

I also try to position a window by dimensions. The top-left window should be (top = 2.02, left = 1.00, width = 0.57, height = 0.84). Material sized to those dimensions don't line up with the window outline.

Save the project and close MB. Open MB and look at the results again. The plan and the material no longer match. And the left side of the plan has acquired line mismatches, where the horizontal lines stick out (It has whiskers!). The dimensions are there, but the skeleton within the dimensions has shrunk unequally.

I'm not experiencing repeatable results with the building plans, and the plans keep changing. This will make it hard to use MB to create identical copies of buildings.

[evande]

Thanks for the attachments. We will download your most recent files and study your comments and see if we can reproduce what you tell us you are seeing here on our end.
regarding all .pdf generators being the same algorithm, that is not true.
All .dxf programs do not generate the same output, we have examined many and find they vary widely in the information they contain. Wikipedia lists over 100 CAD programs that are .dxf compatible, Serif is not on the list.