Why do I get out of range errors when importing DXF floor plans?

If your DXF floor plan does not import correctly into DesignBuilder, there are five common causes.

- Common causes and how to resolve them:

1. Incorrect units selected:

• The units selected on import must match the units the CAD drawing was defined in.
• For example, if the drawing was defined in millimetres but you select metres, DesignBuilder reads every dimension 1,000 times too large, so metres become kilometres.
• The DesignBuilder modeller has a range of several hundred metres, so a drawing scaled up in this way falls well outside it.
• Select the units that match the original CAD drawing and import the file again. 

2. Non-geometric data in the DXF file:

• The DXF file may contain non-geometric content that is not part of the floor plan, for example a title block. 
• Clean up the drawing in your CAD application to remove this content before exporting to DXF.

3. Blocks in the DXF file:

• We recommend exploding all blocks in your CAD application so that they are converted to lines, then exporting to DXF again.

4. DXF file open in another application:

• If the DXF file is open in another CAD application, close that application session and then import the file again.

5. Unrecognised characters in the file path:

• The file name or folder path may contain characters that DesignBuilder cannot recognise. These are displayed as "?".
• Replace these characters in the file name and any folder names in the path, or move the file to a folder with a shorter path, then import the file again.

See also: Importing 2D CAD data