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Model Translation

Model Translation

Model Translation

(OP)
Hi Guys,

I have a part in two file formats.  One format is iges and the other is parasolid xt.  I need to translate this file into SolidWorks, make a few changes and create a drawing.

My problem is, as typical when I open the files in SW I have some gaps and face errors.  I need to resolve these error (heal the geometry) so I can knit it into a solid and do the rest of the work.  I don't have a lot of experience in this sort of thing so I have a couple of questions.

Question #1:  Is there a good help refrenece some where that deals with healing imported geometry?  I've been using the surface and face tools but some areas are complex and I the techniques I know of fail.

Question #2:  It may just be easier to hire a translation service to form the solid for me?  Does anyone know of a good service that could do this?

Thanks for the help.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 8/12/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 / SW 2007 SP 0.0

RE: Model Translation

(OP)
Thanks CBL.  

So, after reading the SW Express article and the report file SW generated about my iges file it seems CATIA V4 is the native system the part was created in.  Does anyone have any best practice on saving files out of CATIA for use in SolidWorks?

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 8/12/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 / SW 2007 SP 0.0

RE: Model Translation

The most ideal import for SolidWorks is parasolid format.  Can you get another set of files (skipping the less-reliable IGES format)?

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Model Translation

(OP)
Yes, I have a parasolid xt file of the same model.

The iges file has 77 bad faces and 1086 gaps.
The prasolid file has 43 bad faces and 77 gaps.

Either way, its a lot of work to fix the problems.

Why can't everyone in the world just SolidWorks.  LOL.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 8/12/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 / SW 2007 SP 0.0

RE: Model Translation

Mathdata.com is a great service for translating native CAD data, especialy CATIA.

On a typical project at my last employer, we found that paying for a good native translation paid for itself with the 4-6 hours save wrestling with poor translatins.

RE: Model Translation

(OP)
Good idea CBL.  I just posted a question there.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 8/12/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 / SW 2007 SP 0.0

RE: Model Translation

If you do a heal geometry how many faces do you still have that are bad?

I worked on a model recently that had 2 bad faces and 2 bad edges, and they were not close to each other. but by deleteing the the first bad face and doing a fill surface on it, then running a Tools\Check the others fixed themself.

Its not as bad as ou think... I find it a fun challenge to rebuild the models. You can use sketches and the present geometry to rebuild the model.

The thing I always tell everyone to use is the import diagnose when you first import and allow SW to fix what it can. Then aftery ou OK that, run a tools check. If you have a general fault you have to get that out of there, "usually cuased by a surface or multiple surfaces", but then just go through each surface and remove it. Some times fixing what you can and exporting it out again as a parasolid and bringing it back into SW witll also help to fix the errors, because you can re-run the import diagnois.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376

RE: Model Translation

rockguy ... Catia supposedly has a lot of native file translators. See if it can export to SW directly, if not see if it can export to Pro/E. SW06 has a good Pro/E translator which includes features.

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: Model Translation

(OP)
I'll check into that.  You've been very helpful today.  Star for you.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 8/12/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 / SW 2007 SP 0.0

RE: Model Translation

rockguy

 I just translated an Catia file that was in a Parasolid  
 format that has some bad faces and gaps.  I did the same
 thing as scott did and ended up with a good model.  

Cheers,

Ralph Wright, CSWP
SolidWorks 2005, SP5.0
P4, 2.53Ghz
1.5 Gb RAM
ATI Fire GL8800 Card
Windows 2000 Pro

RE: Model Translation

Rockguy..
The Catia V4 IGES tranlsator is worthless......you'll be better off trying to get step files...that what we used when we switched from v4 to Solidworks years ago.

If I recall correctly, Catia's tolerances are fairly loose....so the bad faces issue may be the norm for translated files. We had errors on some rather simple files....complex surfacing files...there's no telling if they'll come across. Luckily, Solidworks has some good tools to patch bad faces and gaps.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

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