Refine 2D profile from AutoCAD into valid Inventor sketch - help -

Hi, I guess that many of you have had some struggles now and then with
following situation like me:

A customer send me a bunch of complex 2D profiles in AutoCAD dwg-files.

My job is to create some parts in Inventor R11 from these profiles.
If there is any AutoCAD tool lsp/ vba for refinement of profiles I would
like to know.

Basically I do as much refinement in plain AutoCAD as possible, where I
ensure that only the wanted profile exists in the dwg-file, next is
chekking of true closed area with the BOUNDARY command, then remove
overlap + duplicates with express tools OVERKILL command, however these
procedures cannot close open profiles within a given tolerance. The
BOUNDARY command only tells if there is a problem, but not where.
In MDT surface module (wireframe handling), there is a nice command
AMJOIN3D, where I can pick all line/ arc elements in a profile + type in
a tolerance for closing open gaps, that tool would be perfect if it
wasn't for one big limitation: AMJOIN3D creates a multi-point lwpolyline
only, that means that arcs also are converted into multi-point lines as
part of the created lwpolyline.

Inventor's sketch doctor can't do the job since the result of combined
end-points often results in a self-intersecting loop, and the sketch
geometry is then destroyed.

So if anyone know about some lisp/ vba tools for handling that part, I
guess that many Inventor users would be happy

FUT: alt.cad.autocad

regards Lars

 

I'd suggest instead of the BOUNDARY command try BHATCH.
1.) Here you can retain the boundary and also set a gap tolerance. (May be
at first you must pick the "More Options" button).
After creating the boundary this way you can delete the hatch.
2.) I think you don't need the overkill command, because you get a correct
closed profile (correct profile) without overlapping lines/arcs.
3.) I would not delete all unnecessary objects, but export the needed
profile(s) into a new file (WBLOCK).

HTH
Juergen