Missing Surfaces on Imported Part SW2004 SP4.1

Hi All,

I have already sent an email about this to my VAR, but I thought some
of the gurus here might also be able to shed some light.

The situation:
1) A complex surfaced part was imported from CATIA via IGES
translation and used to create a blow mould. There were surface
problems at the time of import but they were solved and we went ahead
with the job.
2) The mould has now come back for re-design due to miscalculation of
mould shrinkage values. When I adjust the shrinkage value, which is a
scale feature just under the imported part in the feature manager
tree, (or even edit the feature to look at the scale factor), one of
the faces of the previously imported model disappears. When this
happens, parting line surfaces related to this surface develop
problems or diappear.
3) When I attempt to add a "surface fill" and merge it with the body,
my Solidworks session crashes to the desktop.
4) Somewhere in between creating the part and modifying it, I have
upgraded the SP (maybe even twice)

I have already decided to uninstall and reinstall SW to a lower SP to
see if that will cure my woes.

I am hoping that I will be able to retrieve some of my data and not
have to redesign the mould from scratch as this is a very time
critical situation.

Thanks in advance.

Rob

 

Rob,

I'm assuming the originating system was Catia Ver4.xx

If it is, the surface probably had topological errors in it that prevented
it from scaling past a certain point. Catia Ver 4 has the lousiest IGES
translator ever, in the entire history of CAD.

NEVER use Catia 4 IGES files to build tools "EVER". Get the native Catia
files and send them to a service bureau like Theorem
http://www.cadverter.com . There are several to choose from. The cost is
allot less than trying to deal with crap Catia IGES yourself. After you get
the good "Parasolid" file back from the bureau, test it to make sure it will
scale properly, and then replace the driving model in your mold assembly. Of
course, there will be errors to fix, and associations to re-establish, but
you'll end up with allot better data.

If the model originated in Catia 5, have the customer resolve it to the
highest accuracy, and export it as a STEP file (only if it's ver 5, ver 4
STEP is as usless as it's IGES). Never use IGES for import into SW if you
have a choice.

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I (personally) don't know of
a SW magic-bullet for these problems. If this advice doesn't help you now,
perhaps it will aid you in the future.


Regards

Mark