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CadKey to AutoCAD to CadKey conversion
- Thread starter MarkFry
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Guest
Mark,
I too have been looking for a translator to convert .dwg to .prt and vice versa. I found some shareware software for $99.00 at that will batch process files. Do a search on "DWG Converter". I was hoping to find something a little less expensive than this one. If you hear of a freeware program, let me know.
Thanks
CBednz
I too have been looking for a translator to convert .dwg to .prt and vice versa. I found some shareware software for $99.00 at that will batch process files. Do a search on "DWG Converter". I was hoping to find something a little less expensive than this one. If you hear of a freeware program, let me know.
Thanks
CBednz
pfengineer
Mechanical
I would be interested as well; my company recently merged with another. We used to use Cadkey, they use AutoCAD, and so trying to exchange drawings can be a nightmare.
To date, we've been exporting Cadkey drawings as DWG or DXF files which AutoCAD can open fairly easily. As for the reverse, Cadkey only opens DXF files, and won't recognize them if they're not the right version (we have Cadkey 2000 I think, and AutoCad 2000i; if you save the DXF file as one from a couple versions ago it will work). The biggest problem we found was that Cadkey will import the AutoCAD drawing entirely as white lines, which as you can imagine can be frustrating to try to see against its standard white background...
Good luck and let me know if you find anything better ($99 isn't too bad, but free is always nicer!)
Erica P.
To date, we've been exporting Cadkey drawings as DWG or DXF files which AutoCAD can open fairly easily. As for the reverse, Cadkey only opens DXF files, and won't recognize them if they're not the right version (we have Cadkey 2000 I think, and AutoCad 2000i; if you save the DXF file as one from a couple versions ago it will work). The biggest problem we found was that Cadkey will import the AutoCAD drawing entirely as white lines, which as you can imagine can be frustrating to try to see against its standard white background...
Good luck and let me know if you find anything better ($99 isn't too bad, but free is always nicer!)
Erica P.
Hey, I'm a freshman at Kettle Moraine High School in Wisconsin, just starting CadKey, but I own AutoCad 14 at home. I would really appreciate it if someone would explain to me the main differences between the two! We have yet to start working in Cadkey at my school, so if you could "dumb it down" a little, it would make my life easier.
Thanks
Thanks
- Thread starter
- #5
williebill53
Automotive
.dxf & don't expect to have your dimensions exchange at all ... as a matter of fact you will be time & money ahead if you delete all dimensions before you export...I have years of work that was done on CADKEY6 & when Windows 98 came out it would not let me continue to use DOS so I figured that I would just learn a Windows driven version. CADKEY's Windows version is not very user friendly, so I decided to go with AutoCAD 2000 since I had it given to me in a barter situation when the 2nd Ag related business that I worked for closed the doors ... at any rate I lost all my dimensions and have a lot of extraneous lines & things that show when I pull-up my translated .dxf files on 2000 & have formatted the drive that my CADKEY6 DOS program was on ... it is gone! I don't have a paying job that even makes me want to start learning another CAD program ... think I'll go back to school & become a junior high school math teacher or high school ag teacher or something silly ...
just to add a little bit of perspective ... those tires are 73X44/32
[red](I only built one & the doors slammed shut...the owner of this machine is still running the heck out of it)
just to add a little bit of perspective ... those tires are 73X44/32
[red](I only built one & the doors slammed shut...the owner of this machine is still running the heck out of it)
Guest
Hi,
I have just tried the demo version of CADKEY 19 (and the earlier Cadkey 99)
It now has full blown 3D solid modeling, parametrics, etc and it even opens .dwg files from Acad 2000 / 14.
The 30 day demo is/was available free from Baystate/Cadkey, it is FULLY functional, just a 30 day limit.
Tip!! I found this by accident.
At or just before the end of 30 days do the following;
exit CADKEY
At Screen Bottom left, click START, click Run
Type 'regedit' in the open box, click OK or press return
press CTRL + F, type 'globet', press return
regedit will eventually (up to 30 seconds) highlight the registry entry 'Globetrotter Software Inc.', press the delete key and click the YES or OK button.
close regedit and re-run CADKEY
Hey presto you have another 30 days.
I have just tried the demo version of CADKEY 19 (and the earlier Cadkey 99)
It now has full blown 3D solid modeling, parametrics, etc and it even opens .dwg files from Acad 2000 / 14.
The 30 day demo is/was available free from Baystate/Cadkey, it is FULLY functional, just a 30 day limit.
Tip!! I found this by accident.
At or just before the end of 30 days do the following;
exit CADKEY
At Screen Bottom left, click START, click Run
Type 'regedit' in the open box, click OK or press return
press CTRL + F, type 'globet', press return
regedit will eventually (up to 30 seconds) highlight the registry entry 'Globetrotter Software Inc.', press the delete key and click the YES or OK button.
close regedit and re-run CADKEY
Hey presto you have another 30 days.
I was wondering if anyone knew anything about Cadkey/Baystate the company, and where they are going in the next few years... I work for an aerospace company in Connecticut and am considering either switching from Cadkey to another software or staying with Cadkey and upgrading to Version 20 Workshop....
Guest
CADKEY users state that v20 products are slower than prior releases and unusable, missing many of the key routines that failed to update from prior versions.
Customization of CADKEY is at a standstill as the company has yet to implement end user compatible CADL routines. The company is also supposed to be working on a CADL converter for update of the many libraries of customized functions that exist within each user company but, just as the application is unable to properly support the update of old routines, so is it unable to provide updates.
The company chose not to include any backward compatibility paths for PRT, PTN or CDL files. There is no Save As that will create these files as compatible with earlier CADKEY versions. If you chose to adopt CK20, which few users have, your designs stand alone and can't be shared readily with earlier version users.
The solution for export is supposed to be IGES which has restored support for solids but neither CK99 nor CK19 did. Also, IGES export from CK20 to IGES import to earlier CK versions has a host of other incompatibilities including text and dimension mishandling and no usable support for Layouts. In short, you'll spend a great deal of time across several file formats to find a mix that will export solids, surfaces, wireframe and detailing. Any use of OLE will be lost. Any associative features between models and views or detailing will be lost. If CADKEY exports improve this may strengthen the link to other CAD platforms but provides no solution for earlier product users as there is no intention to provide import improvements for any of these products. CADKEY Corporations own developers have indicated their ignorance of these problems and their product by suggesting that the added ability to export wireframe in CK20 SAT files is the solution for sharing data with older versions. THE OLDER VERSIONS ONLY SUPPORT SOLIDS FROM SAT FILES AND CAN'T OPEN FILES FROM NEWER SAT VERSIONS!
If your current CADKEY version is getting the job done it will likely be two or more years before the newest generation will gel and provide a workable incentive for update. If you current CADKEY is not up to task then the latest generation is worse still and provides no solutions. Batch convert wireframe and detailing to DXF, export solids as SAT, STEP or Parasolid, export surfaces as IGES and find an application that'll recycle this data and provide the tools you do need.
Customization of CADKEY is at a standstill as the company has yet to implement end user compatible CADL routines. The company is also supposed to be working on a CADL converter for update of the many libraries of customized functions that exist within each user company but, just as the application is unable to properly support the update of old routines, so is it unable to provide updates.
The company chose not to include any backward compatibility paths for PRT, PTN or CDL files. There is no Save As that will create these files as compatible with earlier CADKEY versions. If you chose to adopt CK20, which few users have, your designs stand alone and can't be shared readily with earlier version users.
The solution for export is supposed to be IGES which has restored support for solids but neither CK99 nor CK19 did. Also, IGES export from CK20 to IGES import to earlier CK versions has a host of other incompatibilities including text and dimension mishandling and no usable support for Layouts. In short, you'll spend a great deal of time across several file formats to find a mix that will export solids, surfaces, wireframe and detailing. Any use of OLE will be lost. Any associative features between models and views or detailing will be lost. If CADKEY exports improve this may strengthen the link to other CAD platforms but provides no solution for earlier product users as there is no intention to provide import improvements for any of these products. CADKEY Corporations own developers have indicated their ignorance of these problems and their product by suggesting that the added ability to export wireframe in CK20 SAT files is the solution for sharing data with older versions. THE OLDER VERSIONS ONLY SUPPORT SOLIDS FROM SAT FILES AND CAN'T OPEN FILES FROM NEWER SAT VERSIONS!
If your current CADKEY version is getting the job done it will likely be two or more years before the newest generation will gel and provide a workable incentive for update. If you current CADKEY is not up to task then the latest generation is worse still and provides no solutions. Batch convert wireframe and detailing to DXF, export solids as SAT, STEP or Parasolid, export surfaces as IGES and find an application that'll recycle this data and provide the tools you do need.
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