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Copy/Paste AutoCad Direct To Solidworks Sketch

Question asked by Stewart McKay on Dec 4, 2012
Latest reply on Mar 14, 2020 by Clifton Schnarr

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Been away from solidworks for a while. Currently using V2012 SW. Now, as I recall in V2009/10 I had no problems directly copying and pasting a group of lines/sketches directly from Autocad to Solidworks, it was extremely convenient. Now, its impossible, what happened? I dont want to have to save a drawing as I currently do to as a .DXF then open it in solidoworks, its too many steps and time consuming a real pain in the a$$, nor do I want to use draftsight, I have no use for the program and our client deliverable is Autocad...

I have a structural steel line diagram for a plant with 7 floors...i simply want to take each floor, make it a part, insert the line diagram into a sketch, and turn each line into structural members!!! Like I use to be able to do!

Does anyone have a solution? This is beyond frustrating!

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Kevin Pymm Dec 4, 2012 12:00 PM
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I just had no trouble copying from AutoCAD 2012 to Solidworks 2013. They pasted lines didn't end up in view though, I had to go looking for them & move them to the origin.
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- Stewart McKay @ Kevin Pymm on Dec 4, 2012 12:21 PM
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  Hmmmmm I still cant do it? Im wondering if there is some setting I require? I even save my drawing in Autocad as version 2010....still nothing
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  - David Suelflow @ Stewart McKay on Dec 4, 2012 1:38 PM
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    What I have found is that I need to wblock the lines I need into a new AutoCAD file. Then I go into the new file and move everything so that the origin is nearby. As you may or may not know SW has a 1km limit on part size and sometimes the AutoCAD origin is too far away. Move everything (in AutoCAD) so that 0,0,0 is nearby, save and then open it in a SolidWorks part file. Remember that the Y and Z axes are flipped when going from AutoCAD to SolidWorks. Sometimes I will import an AutoCAD file into a SolidWorks part file and then mate it into an assembly to get the Y axis going the right way. From there you can make an in-context part that is correctly orientated.
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Mike Lydon Dec 4, 2012 2:52 PM
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I do this all the time (Solidworks 2012 sp4). Move the sketch near the origin as suggested. highlite all the entities you wish to copy. Go to Edit, copy. Open a sketch in Solidworks, and Control V or Edit, Paste the sketch. If Solidworks complains and says "Item from clipboard cannot be placed here" or some such drivel, right click in the Solidworks sketch, and Control V or Edit, Paste again. It should work the second time. One thing you need to know...when the sketch drops into Solidworks, NOTHING is constrained, so make it a block to move it where you need it, explode the block, and Fix any entities you don't want to move. It would be nice to be able to pick lines within a block to create a weldment part, but you must explode the block to pick a line. Hope this helps. YMMV
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- Clifton Schnarr @ Mike Lydon on Mar 14, 2020 10:35 PM
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  Thanks Mike for the comment that Solidworks rejects the paste command the first time around. I would have never tried doing it twice. The "If Solidworks complains and says "Item from clipboard cannot be placed here" or some such drivel, right click in the Solidworks sketch, and Control V or Edit, Paste again. It should work the second time." line really saved me. I am using SW 2019 SP 5 and AutoCAD 2019 and it worked for me just as you described. Thanks for sharing. I had imported a DWG as a sketch and gave everything a "fixed" relation and then realized I needed a couple more pieces of geometry. I used AutoCAD "Copy With Base Point" and copied from the origin. The new geometry dropped right in place. Great description of a workaround we shouldn't have to do!
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Justin Kay Aug 8, 2013 6:11 PM
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Help!!! I'm having this problem too. Using Solidworks 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2014 on Windows 7. And all you people that just say, "It's working fine for me..." You aren't helping. I want a solution.
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Lenny Bucholz Aug 9, 2013 12:42 PM
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Download DraftSight it's free, since it's a DS product it should work.... here is a link to how it works: http://solidworks.burkesys.com/2011/05/copy-and-paste-a-solidworks-drawing-directly-into-draftsight-or-autocad/
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- Justin Kay @ Lenny Bucholz on Aug 9, 2013 6:03 PM
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  Sorry DraftSight is not an option. We use intense AutoCAD customizations that do not work with DraftSight, and not cost effective to try to get working. The link you pasted refers to an older version of Solidworks and is not helpful. Copy/Paste between the 2 applications worked fine until we upgraded to Solidworks 2013.
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  - Peter De Vlieger @ Justin Kay on Sep 4, 2013 3:59 AM
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    Concerning Draftsight : nobody says to ditch your Acad and replacing it with Draftsight but to use Draftsight as a step to get to a solution
    
    I often use Draftsight to open external Acad files so as to convert it down to the Acad version I'm using. In general it works better then anything from Autodesk.
    
    I've had Acad files that I couldn't open with even the latest TrueView but was able to open with Draftsight, resaved it and then was able to open with my old Acad.
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Hari D Sep 4, 2013 2:55 AM
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This problem comes when we are in block editing......please take out entity or explode from the main block, copy and paste it in solidworks it will work................
you can see this message in the autocad command bar so it represents you cant do copy in block editing mode"_copyclip ** COPYCLIP command not allowed during reference editing **"
for reference pls see the link below
http://www.cadeverything.com/help/showthread.php/4666-quot-COPYCLIP-not-allowed-during-reference-editing-quot
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Mennjo Alberto Oct 9, 2014 9:50 PM
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Is anyone got the answer for this?
We're using Solidworks Professional 2013, two the same computer, one computer can do this but the other one cannot do the copy/paste the autocad sketching to solidworks.
What shall I do?
Is anyone find the solution for this?
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- Ben Fulton @ Mennjo Alberto on Mar 22, 2017 9:07 PM
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  As a contractor I move around a lot and see all versions of SW of the last 10 years, and I can safely say, there is an issue with Solidworks 2013 when it comes to transferring sketch objects into SW.
  
  This could be a Windows Update causing the issue.
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Copy/Paste AutoCad Direct To Solidworks Sketch

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