Convert ACIS(SAT) to AutoCAD DWG 1

[alphad]

I'm looking for a tool that enables me to quickly and easily convert ACIS (*.SAT) files ( 1000+) to AutoCAD drawings. Files with sat extension are originated from SolidWorks 2007. I'm also using AutoCAD 2009. Any suggestions?

 

[chicopee]

Check Autodesk ACAD forum.

 

[alphad]

Thanks for the suggestion, but, I already did search AutoDesk.com/forums/. I did not spend several hours on it, but, did read thru anything contains keyword "ACIS". I found nothing really useful. I was hoping to hear from someone already done this many times. I guess I'll call VAR.

 

[Exxit]

Hi alphad,
I think Autodesk has enabled the import of +.sat files.
ACISIN

@chicopee,
funny tip! Please press F1 or ask in annother forum...

ADT 2004

 

[alphad]

Thanks Exxit. Yes, I've been using ACISIN command, and it works great, but, that's not what I'm looking for. Apparently I did not communicate properly in my ordinal posting. Let me try again. I have many *.SAT files. The number is over 5,000 now and growing. Up to recently, I converted a few SAT at a time to DWG. But, now, I have a reason to convert everything ( yes over 5000 files) to DWG. What I want to do is to run my 2nd workstation day& night to generate AutoCAD DWGs with the same file name. I’m ready to pay for it as long as it works. I’m pretty sure it is already done by someone ( smart guy) or company (entrepreneur), I just can’t find it easily. Thanks for your time reading this.

 

[Exxit]

So, you are looking for a script? Like import *.sat -> save as *.dwg -> etc...
Right?
Can you upload a small *.sat file? I haven't got one.

Regards, Lothar

ADT 2004

 

[alphad]

Yes. Your help is greatly appreciated. Attached find a sample file (50KB). So far, the largest file size is 120MB.

 

[Exxit]

Hm,
the problem is, that a script is not of use for an user input. That is a problem for the filename. So you can not use this way for a batch converting.

Lothar

ADT 2004

 

[CarlB]

Yes you should be able to batch convert these sat files. My uneducated take on it (well haven't done batch converting anyway):

Have all 5000 sat files in one folder
Set another destination folder, empty

Write a lisp (or VBA) routine which includes these functions:
-user identifies the two locations (or this could be hard-coded)
-routine will store the names of each sat file name, step through each one
-for each file, runs the command "acisin", then saves to the destination with same name (but with .dwg extension of course)

The routine would first set "filedia" to 0 so no window for user entry, and will set "sdi" to 1 for single drawing mode, so 1 drawing open at a time.

 

[trainguy]

alphad,

Check out the following:

http://www.multi-batch.com/

You MAY find what you need there.

tg

 

[alphad]

Thanks trainguy. I checked it(multi-batch) out. Well, well… it does not have the function (ACIS/SAT importing) I need. It deals with only DXF and DWG.

Thanks CarlB. Yes, I can follow your logic and it does make sense. I have done some batch converting before, but, it is awhile back and based on SolidWorks or Excel. I’m rusty at best and never deal with AutoCAD in terms of scripting. I have zero ability to do in LISP, but, I can do some with VBA. If someone can show me an example of how to attack, then, probably I can take it from there. Or I can run thru a line by line batch file mode if I have to, if there’s an easy way to do it. At least I’m good at Excel and I can list file names ( from SAT to DWG) and modify it to add any “AutoCAD driven commands” into it. Then, the Excel would have 5000 rows and I’ll save the file to text (*.bat) to run. I'm not using AutoCAD for my engineering work.

Any great teachers out there?

 

[CarlB]

Maybe you can attack it with just a script file (*.scr). You could create it in excel, save as a text file. it would have format something like:

acisin
sample_bolt1.sat
save
sample_bolt1
new
[blank line, for a return to accept template]
acisin
sample_bolt2.sat
etc...

-----
before running this you would start with a blank drawing, set filedia to 0, sdi to 1. Put the folder of the .sat drawings in the search path. For the "save" line you might want to control the destination, give a full path-e.g. "c:\\dwgfromsat\\sample_bolt".

Good luck!

 

[TCARPENTER1]

Hi alphad,

You can use DOS to do what you need, it's not terribly complex, I'll try and explain it.

First create a file and call it ScriptTemplate.bat. This file will contain your script command plus a replacable variable:

@echo ACISIN >> Script.scr
@echo %1%.sat >> Script.scr
@echo -Saveas >> Script.scr
@echo %1%.dwg >> Script.scr

Once this is done, type this in at a DOS command prompt:

FOR /F %i in ('DIR /s /b *.sat') DO @echo %~di%~pi%~ni >> list.txt

This will create a list of your ACIS files complete with the path but with no extension. Hence the reason the extensions are in the ScriptTemplate.bat.

To create the final script file, again at a DOS command prompt, type this in:

FOR /F &i in (list.txt) DO ScriptTemplate.bat

You will then have a script file named Script.scr you can now run.

HTH
Todd

 

[alphad]

Great !! I love DOS. Thanks for telling me exactly what to do, Todd. I'm good at DOS as a typical engineer, but, not at this level, wow!!!. Thanks again.

 

[jfmonod]

Hi,

This is only tangentially related to your post (which I am logging away for future reference as it's an excellent thing to know by the way, kudos) but I have a acis vs. dwg question.
Not only is this not the right forum for the question as it deals with Autodesk Revit, I'm not even supposed to be here as I am an architect... Put the guns down.. Please.

As I mentioned I am using Autodesk Revit and attempting to import a number of objects for use as RVT families. Revit only imports .DWG and .SAT files. The geometry is currently in 3DS format but unfortunately the DWG's are a bit heavy (filesize) to be useable in Revit, especially when there are multiple instances. So I am attempting to do the opposite of what you were doing, i.e going from dwg to sat. I have been thru every conversion process I can find (Autocad, Rhino, Okino Translator, Npower .... ) but converting meshes to Nurbs to ACIS SAT is terrible at best. At worst the results are files larger than the whole project i'm trying to import them into.

So my question is : Are Nurbs more or less "efficient" than meshes for modelling complex geometry with high poly counts and so would I get a "lighter" file if I recreated the objects with Nurbs (in Rhino or Max ? )and exported to .SAT. Seeing as you have 5000+ freshly converted files (assuming all went well there) I figured you might be able to accurately gauge whether I might achieve any success here.

So following the usual architectural process, I'm asking the engineers if my warped vision of reality is feasible

Thanks,

JF

 

[alphad]

Merry Christmas jfmonod,
The date you posted this, I downloaded a 30-day evaluation copy of Revit MEP 2009. It is just coindenice, but, it put smile on my face. Yes, it is Christmas morning, and before I go to church I’m writing this …
I’m at home. My 2nd workstation at work is running. The conversion process takes lots of computational time and hard disk space. I don’t know what version of *.SAT you’re using. I’m using 14. Combined with AutoCAD 2004 format, the ratio is 4 to 1. The SAT file size is a lot bigger.
If you're too concerned about file size, the best method is to delete unnesseary entities from the original objects. I’m dealing with the exact same issue myself. It is painful to go thru the process.

 

[Exxit]

@ Tood,

your code is not running.

FOR /F &i in (list.txt) DO ScriptTemplate.bat

I get the message in the dosbox like

 "i" is at this point not processable.

Tested with WIN XP SP3

Do you have any solution?

regards

ADT 2004

 

[TCARPENTER1]

Hi Exxit,

Looks like I goofed, that line should read:

FOR /F [b][red]%[/red][/b]i in (list.txt) DO ScriptTemplate.bat

Sorry about that, you'd think after all these years I'd be able to type

HTH
Todd

 

[alphad]

Actually the correct code is

FOR /F %i IN (list.txt) DO ScriptTemplate.bat %i

Also I notice that the script file created by this method is including hidden characters which I remove using text editor. I'm using PSPad.

It works great by the way. And thanks again for teaching me that method.

Alphad

 

[TCARPENTER1]

Thanks for pointing that out, and glad it worked out in-spite of my lousy typing skills!