Importing drawings from other programs

- [Voiceover] One of the great things about ArchiCAD is that it can import and export to a lot of other softwares. So if I go here to File, Open, and Open, you'll see that from the list of files here we cannot just import ArchiCAD files, but also PMK files, DWG, DXF, IFC, SketchUp files, Google Earth, and also Rhino 3D, so basically the most popular 3D tools out there. But I'm gonna cancel these because there's an easier way to do this which is by simply drag and drop.

So I'm gonna start with a DWG file. I'm gonna drag and drop inside ArchiCAD this DWG. ArchiCAD is gonna ask what unit that drawing was made. I know it was millimeters, so I'm gonna press Place. And then we have a viewport to that DWG file. I'm gonna select and drag it here to the side. What I mean by viewport is that this is actually a window to that file that we can reduce, if you wanna see less or more. And if we change this DWG file, we can right click here and update this file, so you always have the latest DWG inside your project.

Next we can import a PDF file, so I'm gonna drag and drop a PDF file here. Very similar to the DWG we can select, move, and then also resize this viewport the way we want, so I don't want to see the drawing title there. I wanna see a little bit more here. And in the same way it can be updated. You can also bring some 3D files. I have a SketchUp file here I'm gonna drag and drop, and then ArchiCAD is asking me what should we do with the project location? I'm just gonna ignore project location, and then ArchiCAD is gonna allow me to choose where I want to place that project.

So I'm gonna place here on the project zero of zero, and then we have this SketchUp model. If I press F3, we can see it how it looks in 3D. But be careful when you're importing SketchUp models because you may end up with a lot of polygons and this will make your ArchiCAD very heavy and very slow. So be wise. Make sure you bring a model that is not very heavy, very complex. Use it, and if you don't need it anymore, delete and keep your ArchiCAD light.

So let's go back to the floor plan and let's say I wanna edit those drawings in my ArchiCAD. So you can right click in any of those drawings and go into Explode into Current View. Here on the settings we can choose to keep or not the original file. I'm gonna keep it for now. And be careful with the layers, because right now ArchiCAD is saying that every line will become this layer. But if I choose this option here, ArchiCAD will import all the layers from the drawing, and that's the danger.

You may end up bringing a lot of layers that you're not gonna use and this will become a mess in your ArchiCAD. So make sure you choose this first option, and then press OK. And because we choose to keep the original, I'm gonna move it down here, and below we have lines that are grouped together and that we can select and start editing, but I'm not gonna do that. The same thing can be done with the PDF. So I'm gonna right click here, Explode into Current View. You also have similar options regarding Layers, but also regarding Line Types and Fill Types.

I'm just gonna press OK. Now I'm gonna move the original down a little bit as well and then we have a grouped version of those lines so I can zoom in and start changing them. But be careful when exploding DWG first because of scale and also because of precision. DWGs are more reliable on that matter but exploding PDFs is really good when you have details from the manufacturer that you want to use or bring to your project. But when it comes to 3D models that you brought from other files, the way to explode it is by converting to a morph.

So if I right click here and then go to the option Convert Section to Morphs, that guy is gonna give me some warnings. I'm just gonna go and press OK. Now this is a grouped morph that we can start editing. So I can click in one face here and also start doing some changes. So ArchiCAD won't stand in your way when you want to communicate with the softwares that you use, which makes it really great for you to start importing your projects, your DWGs, your SketchUp, and trying to replicate them in ArchiCAD.