Tools for Cleaning Up Floor Plans in .dwg?

FredCM

Hello!

I'm trying to create a 3D model of a house based on a floor plan provided in .dwg format. However, the layers within the .dwg file are really messy and poorly named, and some elements are split into 2 or more layers. This way, manually deleting non-important layers (the ones containing furniture, texts, doorways, etc) can lead to deleting some pieces of walls, for instance. And fixing those things up manually in SketchUp is really time-consuming.

As an example, consider the floor plan below.



So, is there any software, plugin, or script capable of automatically/magically recognizing which parts of the floor plan to keep and which ones to delete/ignore, so I end up with solely the elements needed to make an extrusion in any 3D package? I'm currently using SketchUp and 3DS Max, but any other software that can solve this issue would be more than welcome.

DEVgenesis

i think probably the best is Houdini Indie a friend of mine has a hard one for this program and i can't lie it looks amazing its a 3D modeling program and more that does alot of stuff with code sadly im not that familiar with how it works i only know the bare minimum, it has alot of capablities for auto generation and such and if you ever want i can link some course sadly it is a bit pricy but it could be worth it for you

another caveman

As @DEVgenesis said I assume if all your plans are designed the same way, you could automate something in Houdini.
If you want to do it by hand I'd go in Illustrator. Maybe there too you can automate something (same as Photoshop scripts)
I'd maybe start doing it by hand to get an idea. If say walls are a thicker stroke, windows are a thin gray line, etc. Then you could select by outline color/style/thickness etc as a start.

FredCM

@DEVgenesis thanks for your reply! Could you send me those links? I´ve never tried Houdini before, but maybe it is worth it

FredCM

Thanks for your reply, @another caveman ! Unfortunately, the floor plans may not be designed the same way, as the idea is to receive them from different clients/companies. But I liked the idea of using strokes/color/ information to pick which parts I want.

another caveman

FredCM said:

Thanks for your reply, @another caveman ! Unfortunately, the floor plans may not be designed the same way, as the idea is to receive them from different clients/companies. But I liked the idea of using strokes/color/ information to pick which parts I want.

I see. I can't really think of any universal solution.. Especially with different projects clients workflows etc.. (or like neural network solutions?)
Very interested in this very topic tho. good luck!
This panel from Illustrator could be a good friend..



All these blueprints would be made in sketchup tho ?
Do they come with a 3d model?

FredCM

@another caveman you read my mind! I was just googling on how to select by stroke on Illustrator, and that was really useful. Thanks a lot!

I believe they were made in AutoCAD, and unfortunately, sometimes they don't come along with a 3D file. So, the main idea behind what I'm trying to do is to generate a 3D model out of those blueprints solely. If I can filter the .dwg file and get only the walls information, that would be already a good starting point, as I could extrude those shapes out in 3DS Max, Maya, etc. Then, model/import doors, windows, and other 3D assets.

The next step would be to generate the 3D model of the whole thing taking into account top and sides views. But this is something that is still far beyond my skills. And I'm not sure how feasible it actually is.

another caveman

I used to clean up these kind of files, but  for screenprinting on medics and soaps. At the time (2012) I remember I wished there were script actions like in Photoshop, in Illustrator, so you could bind some stuff. One shortcut you'll like to run a few times once you've open the file:  ctrl+alt+7 (numpad) to make every stroke free from some grouping system.



Now you mention extruding your walls from this file, I think you might be able to skip that, jump straight into blender/photoshop, make yourself some masks (automatic way would be make yourself some parameters to get these walls, manual being re-trace over it..), extrude, repeat with windows, boolean some stuff here and there, etc. Probably windows should still carry some informations or be non destructive enough for you to play with length and width etc. Blender and some boolean plugins could do the trick! You have to find your workflow here I guess 

Eric Chadwick

I did a bunch of freelance work converting bitmap plans into 3d models, and sometimes DWGs too. CAD plabns are a mess, not worth the time to try to reuse IMHO.

I always imported them into Max, froze them, and just drew over them with splines. I used the modifier stack to my advantage with a Sweep modifier to flesh out the wall mesh automatically. Then I could just draw a spline, using Shift to keep the lines rectilinear, and clicking whenever there was a corner or door or window. Might help you.

FredCM

@another caveman I'm afraid that going automatic would require some clean-up first, as there is a bunch of "useless" information in the file (numbers, drawings of tables, doors, and so on). Manually making the masks is indeed an option, but in this case, maybe this should be faster to "draw" over the floor plan in 3DS Max, Blender, etc using splines or even boxes. So, it seems that I just can't run away from cleaning things up manually But I really appreciate your help!

BTW, thanks for the hotkeys!

FredCM

Thanks, @Eric Chadwick and nice work with those renders! And yes, I have the feeling that this might be the fastest way. Nowhere to run, I guess.