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Tech Bulletin: Crashes on Importing AutoCAD 2008/2009 files into Vectorworks 2009

If you are experiencing crashes when trying to import AutoCAD 2008/2009 files into Vectorworks 2009, the cause may be AutoCAD annotative objects. AutoCAD annotative objects are a new type of object that was introduced in version 2008. These objects can be identified by the fact that their annotative property is set ON. Any of the following AutoCAD objects can be annotative: Text, Mtext, Dimensions, Hatches, Tolerances, Multileaders, Leaders, Blocks, and Attributes.

If you are experiencing Vectorworks 2009 DXF/DWG import crashes that are related to annotative objects:

1.      Ask your AutoCAD file provider to save the file as version 2004 or version 2000 (this will remove the annotative objects).

        or

2.      Update your Vectorworks 2009 DXF/DWG import library to a newer version in which this issue is significantly improved.

To update to the newer version Vectorworks 2009 DXF/DWG import library, please perform the following steps:

On Windows:
In your Vectorworks 2009 Application folder, rename your existing DWGdirectAd.dll to be DWGdirect_orig.dll, then download the new DWGdirectAd.dll library from this location.
Unzip the downloaded file and place the new library in your Application folder.

On a Mac:
In your Vectorworks 2009 Application bundle, move your existing libDWGdirectAd.dylib to your desktop, then download the new libDWGdirectAd.dylib library from this location.
Unzip the downloaded file and place the new library in your Application bundle.

To access the application bundle, go to the Vectorworks 2009 folder, right click (or Ctrl click) on the Vectorworks 2009 application and choose "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu. Expand the "Contents" folder then the "MacOS" folder. Here you will see the "libDWGdirectAd" library file.

Please note the following two issues regarding this new library:

1.      This library has not received the usually high level of testing that most of our other publically distributed products receive. While we have performed a moderate level of testing and are aware of no problems with this library, please keep the original Vectorworks 2009 library handy and consider rolling back to it if you experience problems.

2.      This new library fixes many of the crashes associated with annotative objects, but they do not fix all of the crashes. We are currently working closely with the provider of our third party DXF/DWG import library to fix the remainder of the problems.