Import Points from Ascii File?

Have a list of points given in XYZ Coordinates.
My CAM application can import these from a text file if given in the correct
format.
Anyone know of a way to do this in SolidWorks?

Also, am involved in a little mind exercise on another news group which
involves finding the shortest path between 400 points scattered at random
across a plane. The routing line feature is the closest thing I am able to
find to connecting the dots in an optimised path in SW, but this isn't quite
what is required. Anyone know of a feature in SW that can accomplish this.
Thanks, Sean

 

If you are using VB or VBA, try using the API call "Part.CreateLine2"

retval = ModelDoc2.CreateLine2 ( xStart, yStart, zStart, xEnd, yEnd, zEnd )
Input: (double)p1x X value of the line start point
Input: (double)p1y Y value of the line start point
Input: (double)p1z Z value of the line start point
Input: (double)p2x X value of the line end point
Input: (double)p2y Y value of the line end point
Input: (double)p2z Z value of the line end point
Return: (LPDISPATCH) retval pointer to a dispatch object, the newly
created SketchSegment object. If the operation fails, then NULL will be
returned.

 

This is known as the "travelling salesman" problem.
see http://www.ing.unlp.edu.ar/cetad/mos/TSPBIB_home.html for a complete
reference.
What you need is a program that would "sort" your list of points along the
shortest path. Then, a macro such as Tony's above could draw it in
SolidWorks.
I searched the web for such a program (it should exist) but didn't find one
yet that works in 3D.
How much would you pay for such a tool ? (I can write one quite easily...)

 

If you only want to import the 3D points as a pointcloud
you may want to try one of my macros. Goto the macro section
at http://swtools.cad.de and look for the macro called
mm_24.zip, this one takes XYZ coordinates and generate a
3D sketch with the points.

HTH,
Stefan

--

unofficial german SolidWorks helpsite
http://solidworks.cad.de
tools and programs for SolidWorks
http://swtools.cad.de

 

you can also have a look at http://www.dynabits.com/sw/point_cloud.htm to
learn how to convert your points in a STL solid for FREE.

 

Thanks for the info - I am already in the process of writing some code to
search thru the points for the shortest path. Was hoping there was already a
method built into Solid Works for this task to use as a comparison. Saw
someone else had gotten results on this task with ProE, and thought maybe SW
had something in it that I had never run across.
Not really interested in doing the extra work of writing the VBA code to
work with SW at this moment though.

Thanks, Sean

 

is there one point on either side of the sketch that you want it to go from: to:
it would take me 5 min to write if so.

 

with a macro, like Stefan Berlitz said earlier:

 

I could compile concorde on Windows and it works pretty well in 2D now.
Will modify it for 3D and ask Princeton if they allow me to release the code
for free, because their license restricts to academic research.
Stay tuned.