Gemstones in SolidWorks

Hello All,

I am looking for advice on creating multi-facted gemstones in
SW 2004. I once saw a tutorial that made short order of this, but a
search has resulted in nothing. A "feature table" driven macro would
be most helpful as I need to generate a number of these models. If you
are familiar with Lightwave 3D, there is a tool that automatically
generates gemstones based on numeric values entered. This would be
ideal. All help is greatly appreciated.

Mike T.

 

Mike,

Yeah, well, I can only suggest using Rhino3D, they have some gem addins
(scripts) for creating a faceted surface model, then import them into SW
via parasolid, step, iges,..
Or, if you have LW and that plugin, you could also use import the mesh
model (VRML or STL) and convert it into a faceted surface model in SW.

...

 

Several models in various 3D formats (no SW...) on
http://www.3dlapidary.com/HTML/Models.htm
I might make a macro for you. Can you e-mail me more info (tables, samples,
links to geometry info...)
I already made one for rubis bearings used in watches.

 

Hello Paul,

Thank you for the response. I have the model as an STL file,
but do not kow what you mean by "convert it into a faceted surface
model in SW". When I load the STL in SW, it comes in as an "STL
Graphic" and I can do nothing to it or with it. Your further advice is
welcomed.

Mike T.

 

Mike,

When opening the STL/VRML, you have a "Options" (import options) tab at
the bottom right of the dialog box.
Then, "Import as" (the default is "Graphics Body"), change it to "Solid
Body" or "Surface Body" depending on what you are doing with the data.
Also, you have a choice of units, export mm > import mm. (note, STL's
will move the object into the positive coordinate space so you may loose
your origin if the object is centered at the 0,0,0 or if it was created
in a negative coordinate location.

The issue with this is that the STL/VRML meshes are triangulated so
planar surfaces will be split up with triangles.
SW can not simplify those split faces into a unsplit planar faces.

The reason I suggest Rhino3D is because you can simplify the faces into
single faces and then convert them into surfaces "MeshToNurb" before
exporting to parasolid, step, iges..
So, if it is a LightWave *.lwo or Wavefront *.obj, it most likely has
faces which are not triangulated, so when you import them into Rhino3D,
they will most likely not be triangulated as well..

Beside the mesh files Philippe suggested, there are also Rhino3D *.3dm
files out there..
http://www2.rhino3d.com/resources/default.asp?category=8&language=

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