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Solidworks export lower-case extension?

Solidworks export lower-case extension?

Solidworks export lower-case extension?

(OP)
We have users who send data to our engineers who use other software packages, and they have trouble with the all-caps, more-than-three-letter extensions that Solidworks uses, especially for STEP export.  Is there a way to change this default so that SW always uses 3-letter, lower-case extensions?

RE: Solidworks export lower-case extension?

(OP)
Our engineer says this about import into Pro/E:

"Whenever we (Eng) receive an export file from (designers)  we have to rename as follows before we can use it
 
1.change  .STEP  to .stp   or  .iges  to .igs  if necessary
2.remove all upper case letters in the name  ( suffix or prefix)
3.remove all spaces in the name ( suffix or prefix)"

Perhaps he is mistaken?

RE: Solidworks export lower-case extension?

Interesting. Must be why my customer reads my IGS and STEP files in as junk. I will try with the lower case.

RE: Solidworks export lower-case extension?

I just saved my model to a STEP file and it did save it in upper case "*.STEP" file. It opens fine in SW, I have no issues. Now if another CAD package is having a hard time opening them. Then it's their problem not SW. It would fall under their CAD VAR (not yours) for them to have the ability to open the files, because the extension is still a STEP file whether or not it's saved "STEP" or "step" - It's still a STEP file, anyway you slice it.

That goes for "IGS" or "igs" files too.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.scottjbaugh.com

If you are in the SW Forum Check out the FAQ section

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RE: Solidworks export lower-case extension?

>> "It's still a STEP file, anyway you slice it."

Freudian slip ? Arent Step files "sliced" along the Z Axis ?

RE: Solidworks export lower-case extension?

Yes this can be done.  The "save as" dialog defaults to upper case extensions, so you will have to manually change the upper case letters if you do a "file-save as".  The better way to do this is to use a macro.  The following will save the current part document as a step file in the same folder with the same name, but using only lower case characters.  Paste into a blank macro, link to a toolbar button and you can do your saving with one press of a button and no typing.

Option Explicit

Dim swApp, Doc As Object

Const swDocPART = 1
Const swMbWarning = 1
Const swMbOk = 2

Dim BoolStatus As Boolean
Dim LongStatus As Long
Dim e As Long
Dim w As Long

Dim Msg As String
Dim DocName As String

Sub main()

  Set swApp = CreateObject("SldWorks.Application")
  Set Doc = swApp.ActiveDoc
    
    If ((Doc Is Nothing) Or (Not (Doc.GetType Eqv swDocPART))) Then
        Msg = "A part document must be active to use this command!"
        LongStatus = swApp.SendMsgToUser2(Msg, swMbWarning, swMbOk)
        End

    Else
        DocName = LCase(Doc.GetPathName)
        DocName = Left(DocName, Len(DocName) - 7) & ".step"
               
        BoolStatus = Doc.SaveAs4(DocName, 0, 0, e, w)
        
        If BoolStatus = False Then
            Msg = "Failed to save IGS document!"
            LongStatus = swApp.SendMsgToUser2(Msg, swMbWarning, swMbOk)
        Else
            Msg = "Saved part as " & DocName
            LongStatus = swApp.SendMsgToUser2(Msg, swMbWarning, swMbOk)
        End If
       
    End If
 
    Set Doc = Nothing
    Set swApp = Nothing

End Sub

RE: Solidworks export lower-case extension?

(OP)
Thanks - this could be very helpful!

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