I am trying to convert an engineers (surveyors) drawing from AutoCAD to Visio, which I have done before with Visio 2003, this time using 2010, since it is supposed to be better at it.  I first opened up a blank drawing snd set the page size and drawing scale to match the CAD drawing.

Then I inserted the CAD drawing and started going through the layers that I needed in the final Visio drawing. I converted the layers that I wanted and saved the file. Opened it up again and verified that I could move around in it and change zoom levels, etc. - a few non-destructive things. The next time I opened it I couldn't do anything without an error box popping up titled "Open CAD Drawing" that says:

"Cannot open file. This file may not be a DWG or DXF file, it may not be in a supported version of the DWG file format, or it may be corrupted. Check the file and try again"

I have to close this box twice before I do anything, even changing a zoom level, rendering the visio file useless for practical purposes, even though I can see the drawing.

I have heard that the original CAD file is associated with this Visio file. Now that Visio has created a new file, can I remove all traces of and references to the CAD file, since I do not need it? I tried deleting the CAD layer and the color override layer, but there was no change.

I do not have AutoCAD, and know very little about it, but I have used DWG files in Visio before, with varying degrees of effectiveness. The CAD file is saved as a 2004 version, I believe

Dominic Barber

I think I have figured it out.

My method was to insert the CAD drawing object and play around with the layers by turning on and off the visibility until I got what I wanted on the drawing. The reasoning behind this is because it's often hard to tell exactly what the layer titles mean, as well as the fact that sometimes entities are on the wrong layer (lazy engineers!). When I got it looking right I converted all the layers that I could see.

My mistake was to delete the CAD drawing layer at this point. I should have deleted the inserted CAD object first. I didn't see it at first because it was the same as the converted Visio layers.

So, right after conversion you delete CAD object, and Visio shouldn't complain that it can't open the CAD drawing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I will wait a bit before I mark this answered, just in case.

DB

Thanks to share the solution to us. This will help the others who meet the same issue.