Smart Fill Tool to use on Existing dwg or pdf floor plans

Hi,

when you get them into Draw take a look at the plans in wireframe view. If any of the lines aren't touching or overlapping Smartfill can't fill the area as it's not enclosed. Just drag an end node to close the area. It's time-consuming sometimes, but it get the job done. The other thing to do is save, save regularly and save often. Many CAD apps create a LOT of objects with a LOT of nodes and, as such, can get a little cumbersome for Draw to handle easily. Save after every operation, that way if CDraw quits on you at least that bit of work's saved.

If I'm understanding correctly what it is you are trying to do, Draw is a good application for this sort of job - at least it works for me :o)

Best,

Paul

It's strange -- there has been an epidemic in the various newsgroups of people arguing with Autocad files. They can be the most frustrating files to work with, no matter how you produce them--or what program you run them into.

Autocad files themselves usually result in something as simple as a circle being made up of hundreds of elements. But the opposite happens when you create a PDF or EPS--what were perhaps 100 or more apparently simple entities in the Autocad file become one humungous, open curve that goes on forever through entirely unrelated components.

I often wind up using the PDF as only a guide for some items, and redraw the elements (taking advantage of the "snap" in Corel Draw) using circles (ellipses), and rectangles, and straight or curved curves with the bezier.

It is only occasional elements that you can get lucky on and the resulting shape in the file is in fact truly bounded. The smart fill tool can "escape" through the smallest little break (sometimes too small to see except at extreme zoom) in the boundary. You can try "repairing" the boundary by any method.

I would also recommend in the case of Autocad files, fairly frequently exiting (with save of course!) and restarting CDR. The astounding number of objects that arrive in a Corel Draw file can overwhelm it after a few operations, which can result in irregularities. I suspect the items for "undo" functionality can get out of hand just because there is so much to keep (take a look at how many items make up a common washroom sink! Or a french window,... or... I recall someone a few years ago saying that one window design in Autocard was made up of over a thousand elements and he had hundreds of such windows in the file! I've worked with Autocad files (specifically the entire facilities of the convention wing of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas) that took about 20 minutes to open because there were something like a hundred thousand items in it.

Slane wrote:

I just got Corel Draw suite X 4 to aide me in editing our office floor plans. The floor plans are avaible in two formats dwg (auto CAD file) or pdf. I have tried using both formats in Corel Draw.... the smart fill tool would be PERFECT for this.. as each room is it's own section (object). I can get the tool to work off and on and then either Corel crashes on me OR it will no longer smart fill and begins filling in the entire page. This is getting very frustrating. I have used Photoshop to edit these floor plans (way too time heavy) and also Arc GIS 9, which was more power than i needed to add a little color and text to a floor plan.

 

Can someone help me with this? Or does anyone know if a better way? Different program etc?

---

http://coreldraw.com/forums/p/14578/58901.aspx#58901

Thank  you for the help and suggections! You're right, Corel made something like 2,000 curves from the Autocad file. It's crazy. I viewed the file in Wireframe and can see where a lot of the files don't connect. This is quite frankly going to be a b!tch to go through and edit for 3 bldgs and 6 floors. How else can I do this? Or what's the best way to "reapir" the lines? 

 

Would someone be willing to allow me to email them a floor example to help with this issue? I've spent 2 days straight trying to come up with away to make this project work, and now i am at a loss.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

~Sarah

Sorry Sarah, but I'm afraid that it's likely going to be simply a case of doing a bunch of hard and boring hard work. Save often and keep a mental note of when CDraw quits (hopefully it won't) on you and you may get some clues as to what part of the file or particular operation is causing issues and you might think of a way to circumvent any problems. Better, I feel, to keep things 'in hand' than to automate anything with a file so full of objects that it becomes flaky. Hopefully Paul (cool coincidence that it's two Pauls who replied here) will have some other insights. I hope so - it'll be very interesting to me too.

Best

Paul

Hi Sarah  I would be happy to check out a file for you.

As far as your issue of the smart fill tool actually filling up the entire page. This is due to the fact that the smart fill tool works with closed objects and objects from cad and such will come into draw looking as if they are closed yet they are actually not.

Possible fix is to select certain objects, combine  and or weld them together before using the smart fill tool.

I do this work often and I came up with (for me) is the best work flow.
Open your CAD file and save as a CDR. You'll need to group everything
and lock it (right click to get the options). Make sure your SNAP TO
OBJECTS is on and use the bezier tool. The locked object won't move but
your bezier tool will snap to all the points of the room boundary. It's
still boring repetitive work but I find it easier than joining all the
broken lines, especially since some walls can be made of multiple lines
overlapping each other that are also combined with pieces that are
completely unrelated to the object you are editing and across the page.
Very strange results when working with CAD files.

Also, I have a macro called SelectSame that works pretty well to clean
up CAD files. I select and combine sections of the CAD objects. Then
combine all the sections together. Finally I break apart everything.
This corrects the issue where one piece is combined with another piece
across the page that isn't even touching. Then I use the SelectSame
macro to select objects by size, shape and node count. Then delete them.
This helps clean out the converted postcript fills and various other
small objects that clog up Corel when working with the file.

I'm not sure where I got the macro from. I'm pretty sure it was from the
Corel newgroup but Joan posted it last year in this post...
http://coreldraw.com/forums/t/8398.aspx

Good luck with your projects.

Steve
www.brutefish.com

Slane wrote:
> I just got Corel Draw suite X 4 to aide me in editing our office floor
> plans. The floor plans are avaible in two formats dwg (auto CAD file) or
> pdf. I have tried using both formats in Corel Draw.... the smart fill
> tool would be PERFECT for this.. as each room is it's own section
> (object). I can get the tool to work off and on and then either Corel
> crashes on me OR it will no longer smart fill and begins filling in the
> entire page. This is getting very frustrating. I have used Photoshop to
> edit these floor plans (way too time heavy) and also Arc GIS 9, which
> was more power than i needed to add a little color and text to a floor
> plan.
>
>
>
> Can someone help me with this? Or does anyone know if a better way?
> Different program etc?
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> http://coreldraw.com/forums/p/14578/58901.aspx#58901
>

Hi,

  My email is slane"at"email.arizona.edu

 

Drop me a line would love to get your input on the files.

 

Thanks!

Steve-

 Thanks so much for the input! I will give this a try this morning.  I didn't think CAD files would be so hard to work with...