Import surface and orient to standard planes

I need to import an iges surface file and orient it to the three standard
planes in a part file. When I tried it during a job interview today, the
surface came in skewed with no regard to the existing planes and I could not
figure out how to pull it into alignment with the planes. Of course I could
place new reference planes on the surface, but with no linear edges to
reference, I could not establish a plane at 90 degrees to the surface. The
surface will be used to model a plastic part which must mate to that
surface. Is there a way to make the iges surface line up with the standard
planes?

Thanks,
Mark

 

Mark,

To reorient the imported surface from within a SolidWorks part file,
you can make use of Insert/Surface/Move - Copy (from the main menu).

The operation's dialog box will allow you to translate or rotate the
surface. If you need to do both, then (2) Moves will be required since
it doesn't seem possible to combine them into a single operation.

Another (much less direct and potentially tedious means) for
reorientation is to manually create a user-defined coordinate system
for use in exporting the surface (as IGES, for example) and then read
it back into SolidWorks. By carefully positioning and angling the
cooordinate system, your result could be achieved; however, you might
need to create some reference geometry to use for defining the new
X,Y,Z axes, since the surface itself often doesn't contain edges and
vertices that are useful for positioning the new coordinates.

Per O. Hoel

___________

 

The available seat of SW2005 is 'part design only', so I will not have
access to assembly files. They don't want to spend the money for a full seat
of SW. I'm trying some of your suggestions now in the part file, but my
machine is choking on the huge surface file, so it's slow going.
Mark

 

"Hmm? Full seat? Don't understand that response? SW comes with
assembly capability, there is no seperate module or full seat version."

Let me try and explain:

For many years SolidWorks has had a part modeler only version. No one
really did much with it until recently when SURFWARE, (SURFCAM) because
they are so far behind and because they lost control of the source code
for SURFCAM Solids, (A3DS Paralogix) started selling / giving away the
SolidWorks part modeler.... which has no assemblies and no drafting.

jon

 

This copy of SW did come as part of a surface modeler package. It will not
open an assembly file or a drawing file, nor will it create them. Parts
only. The company wants to plug a person into that seat if SW will do the
job. What I am attempting is to take a 'point cloud' iges file taken from an
automobile surface and pull it into SW. This surface will be the underside
of a plastic part. So I need to create a solid body whose underside is
identical to that iges surface. I had thought if I could create some
reference planes I could pull some intities into sketches and loft them. But
this does not look promising. Maybe an offset surface with zero offset would
be the way to go. But how would I thicken the surface into a solid body?

Mark

 

Mark,

What is the name of the surface modeler that your using that includes
SolidWorks Part Modeler with it ?

jon

 

The iges file was generated by Geomagic. That part was done by someone else.
The imported surface has jagged edges and holes in it. I think these would
have to be repaired before the surface is useful for creating a part. I'm
figuring these things out as I go, but this surface model is beyond the
capability of my system making progress impossible tonight. I have a 1.2 Ghz
processor and 500 MB of memory and it can't handle it. I guess it's time to
upgrade.

Mark

 

Mark,

How about using Rhino to repair it / get it ready before you import it
to SolidWorks ? It's a free download and it's fully functional (except
for copy and paste) for 25 saves.

www.rhino3d.com

jon

 

In that case, you might want to use your surface modeler package to clean up
and handle the surface before you put it into SW. SW has a lot of surfacing
capability, but it is some of the buggiest and least stable parts of the
code.

Why create lofts? So that you can control the surfaces? If they have to
match the IGES data, what's the point? Is the IGES data so bad that you
don't feel you can trust it and you want to tweak the part to match the real
surfaces? That sounds expensive and time-consuming.

That is the approach I would try first. The thicken command will do this.
But it often doesn't work very well. If it works fine. If it doesn't, you
have to work around its limitations. That's one reason I suggested that you
might want to stick with your surface modeler until you are ready to turn it
into a solid.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

"SW has a lot of surfacing capability, but it is some of the buggiest
and least stable parts of the code."

Typical of a CAD/CAM product that is conceived as a parametric solid
only modeler and then at a later point surfacing is added to it.

The power of VX is that it was conceived as a hybrid modeler from it's
inception.

The power of VX is that surface and solids work equally well and the
tools to use either feel almost transparent. (Still some UI work to do
in this area.)

The power of VX is that VX builds their own kernel instead of trying to
add surfacing on top of the Parasolid kernel.

The power of VX is that it's robust in ways that SolidWorks may never
be.... no matter how much dressing SaladWorks Corp. adds.


jon (If I'm the janitor that Jerry says I am when I'm not around why is
Jerry stuck with garbage. :>)).

 

As Paul stated SolidWorks should be able to open Parts Drawings and
Assembly files by default --- there is no "full seat" version.

Sounds like your install was corrupted possibly because it's a Pirate
version?

If it's not a Pirate Copy you need to edit the registry. If it's a
Pirate copy Email SolidWorks and tell them to come and fix it, they are
quite generous, you probably wouldn't spend too much time in prison.

Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
SOLIDWORKS
(Deleted old SolidWorks Keys)

And then reinstall

you will then get access to the Assembly and Drawings

 

"As Paul stated SolidWorks should be able to open Parts
Drawings and Assembly files by default --- there is no "full
seat" version."

Paul was not aware of the SolidWorks Part Modeler addition.

"Sounds like your install was corrupted possibly because
it's a Pirate version?"

He doesn't have a cracked copy of SolidWorks. I suggest you
give back you Usenet toy cop badge.

"If it's not a Pirate Copy you need to edit the registry."

He doesn't need to edit the registry.

jon

 

"But, if that's the case (being striped part modeling code)
or it's a addon to some CAM software, it's not really SW or
should it be considered a reflection of SW, imho."

My comments are based on SolidWorks not the SolidWorks Part
Modeler. A CAD/CAM system should have built in tools to
deal with this common type of situation. IMO, it's common
where the client can't model... especially if their an
AutoCAD user. Typical kind of problem is that polylines are
not connected and the toolpath goes nuts or just stops.
Whatever it is, the job shop owner usually just wants to fix
the problem and not upset / fight with the client... that's
just the way it works in the small machining job shop
business. IMO, you either deal with it or get out of the
small machining job shop business. Another problem is that
AutoCAD lets someone edit a dimension so it doesn't
accurately reflect what is drawn. (I wonder who the genius
was who decided to allow this kind of edit ? ) I deal with
an electrical engineer like this who works for Intel. I ask
for prints and model it myself because it's easier than
checking everything he did. Naturally, I learned that the hard
way.

"Maybe it's important to note, that in general, the CAM
software world (midrange) continues put it's users in a poor
situation by not providing the right modeling tools to get
the job done"

True but the situation is even worse than that. It's
been common knowledge for years that finding CAM that's
*great* at 2 1/2 axis and 3 axis is just about impossible.
Example: DelCAM PowerMill... sells for like $18,000 or some
ridiculous price. It's great at 3 axis toolpath surfacing
and last I looked at it, it sucked at 2 1/2 axis work.
Should get better now that DelCAM purchased EGS FeatureCAM.
Hopefully FeatureCAM will inherit some of what is in
PowerMill as well.

"Anyhow, this is not going to be very productive because the
approach is wrong and the wrong tools are being used (or not
used properly) and his company is not helping the
situation."

Sounds to me like he's trying to show he can get the job
done so he can get hired or get the work. I also think this
is the kind of thing that VX excels at because an
experienced VX user does not have to go outside of VX and
use Rhino. In any case, I think he's got the right attitude
and I believe he will get the job done.

OT: Do you like how IronCAD handles sketching with it's non-modal
type of approach ?

jon

 

Email the point cloud to jb <VBG>.

 

What part of the terms CAD, CAD/CAM or CAM are still unclear to you?

 

Who rants about associativity being unneeded?

 

He needs lots of copies?

 

If you had a CAD or CAD/CAM system you could just
redimension it all on a free layer and compare the
dimensions.

But about any actual CAD or CAD/CAM user would know
that.

 

The surface is a bunch (over 500) little surfaces that looks like a mesh. I
opened the iges file in Rhino and deleted a bunch of the surfaces so I would
have just a small portion of the surface to play with in Solidworks. I have
about 20 contiguous faces. I then knitted them and tried to thicken the
surface. I want to thicken to 0.080 inch, but it will only go to about
0.040. I can only guess this is because some of the little surfaces are too
wavy. I'm guessing I need to smooth the surface before I thicken it. How is
this done? Does this seem like a reasonable way to turn the surface into a
solid model?

Mark

 

WHY CANNOT YOU LEARN TO PROPERLY QUOTE IN USENET
POSTS???

AFTER ALL OF THESE MANY YEARS???

WHY MUST YOU QUOTE ENTIRE POSTS THEN REQUOTE
SECTIONS & COMMENTS IN NONSTANDARD WAYS???

JUST A SLOW LEARNER?

IS IT THE TINFOIL BEANIE?