Automated CAD Translation into Solidworks 2015

[TWalla27]

Hi,
Has anyone used a CAD translator company or program to translate 3D and 2D CAD data into Solidworks without it being a manual operation? Our company just merged with another whose legacy data is in Inventor and a majority of our data is in SW 2015. We would like to convert all of their data so that we don't have to manage 2 CAD tools.

Thanks.

 

[AnnaWood]

Not auto-magically with a feature tree.

Does all the data really need to be converted? Can you just create SolidWorks files of the projects that are truly current and need to be maintained?

Can you make pdf's of the Inventor 2D drawings and save out 3D solid step files of the 3D inventor files to save for legacy data?

Keep the 2D AutoCAD dwg's as is. Draftsight is a great 2D AutoCAD work-alike and is free. Draftsight can maintain the legacy 2D AutoCAD.

Anna Wood
SW2015 SP5, Windows 7 x64

 

[TWalla27]

Hi Anna,

Thanks for your response. The product life cycle for the CAD data in question is 15 to 20 yrs including servicing and their is at least 20 years of data. While it may be true that not all of it needs to be converted each product has upwards of 500 components and at least 15 products that may or may not share the same components. We currently have PDFs of all of the drawings from all of the different CAD tools and we currently maintain licenses for NX, SW, and Inventor/AutoCAD. We are in the process of trying to standardize our CAD tools globally and would like to manage all of the legacy data in one CAD tool. I believe that the only way this will get done is through a manual operation of rebuilding assemblies in SW, but my boss requested I look and ask the question. So thanks again.

Taras

 

[drawoh]

TWalla27,

If you a bunch of people trained in 2D or Inventor, re-modeling the parts is good SolidWorks training.

--
JHG

 

[SBaugh]

Not including the 2D data, but the NX data could be brought into SW 2017 if you have the 3D interconnect tool. There are some bugs when bringing in the NX assembly data. To get around that you could export all your NX files to Parasolid's and re-import them. Its not automatic, but its quicker than building it from the ground up. The NX assembly files when opened using the interconnect causes the descriptions to say "Copy Of,Copy of..." and repeats itself several times as seen in the image below:

The geometry data is good, just these annoying descriptions. When you do export out to the Parasolid, this doesn't happen and best of all the Parasolid file opens just like it was in NX, as an assembly with separate components. Then its just a matter of saving the files to the appropriate locations.

The 2D data, I don't know of any software out there that will automatically convert data to 3D. There are tools in SW to help you with the process, but they are limited and your better off just building it in SW manually. Sounds like its time to hire some interns.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar

http://www.evapar.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[TWalla27]

Hi Scott,

I don't want to convert the 2D data into 3D, I want to convert from say an NX drawing file to a SW drawing file. Also for the NX interconnect tool do you get a feature tree as well.

Thanks
Taras

 

[SBaugh]

No its still a dumb solid. There is not one CAD system that I have seen or that I am aware of, that will rebuild a tree when coming from one to another.

As for drawings, I have not done that, so I cannot answer that. Model data does come over, but like I said above, its a lot cleaner as Parasolid versus native NX files.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar

http://www.evapar.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376