Exporting full scale .dxf from Pro-E 2.0

[AChurilla86]

Hello,

I have been working with version 2.0 of Pro-Engineer for about 2 months now. I am trying to export a full scale .dxf from pro-e to create a cut file. I made sure to set my scale to 1 and my dxf_out_drawing_scale and dxf_out_scale_views are both set as yes in my options to create a full scale cut file.

However, when all seems well, I noticed that after i cut out my part, the scale is not a perfect full scale. In fact, it seems to be a little bit smaller than the dimensions I wanted it scaled to.

for example, the overall length x height I want should be 12.265 inches x 1.665 inches. After I get my part cut out, it ends up being 12.09375 inches x 1.6415 inches. this is very confusing, as I made sure that everything should be full scale. I had to send a .dxf to my co-worker to fix the scale on adobe illustrator and then the cut out comes out just fine in full scale from a .pdf file.

If anyone has any experience with this and found a solution I would be glad to get some expert tips.

Thanks!

 

[dgallup]

I assume you mean Pro/E Wildfire 2.0 as Pro/E release 2 dates back to about 1989.

Did you try exporting your dxf and then importing it back into Pro/E? You can create some dimensions and verify the size. That will let you verify whether the problem is in your export or somewhere else.

I would change both those config options back to no (the default). I don't have either one set. I have done many DXF exports to other CAD packages, FEA programs, etc. and the geometry always comes through exactly.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[AChurilla86]

Thanks for your reply dgallup. As a matter of fact, I was talking about wildfire 2.0.

I imported the .dxf file back into Pro-e and it came back in the correct dimensions. It is weird because I had my co-worker re-scale another .dxf on Adobe Illustrator to create an actual scaled drawing as it was still slightly too small. I still feel that exporting may still be the problem, but I can't seem to figure it out.

Earlier, I actually had both set as the default on no, and it still came out in the same scale, with the scale being slightly smaller as mentioned earlier.

Do you think I should just revert everything to the default settings and try this out? I don't want to mess up and settings that were necessary, but if I can get a proper full scale just by reverting back to all default settings then I am willing to take the risk.

 

[dgallup]

If you imported the dxf file back into Pro/E and it's the right size then it sounds like the problem is with the application that's using the "cut file". Is it compensating properly for the width of the cut?

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[AChurilla86]

I am not sure. I will have to experiment more with the cutting machine to figure out why the dxf is scaling down, as it also does for Adobe Illustrator. Perhaps I should email the dxf to someone who has autoCAD or Solidworks and see what size they get. This would require me to find someone who has one or the other and hopefully, help me get to the root of this problem.

 

[AChurilla86]

So a little update on my part.

I sent the .dxf cut file to my laptop to figure out the problem. I have Pro-E wildfire 4.0 student edition on my laptop and the .dxf ended up being the right size. I then saved that .dxf to another filename and sent it to my co-worker who checked the dimensions. The dimensions were much closer (around 1.6644" x 12.2605").

I feel that maybe Pro-e wildfire 2.0 may just somehow be outdated and inaccurate with file exports.

I attempted to cut out the part and it came out as the same size as before. It probably is the cutter and how it translates the dimensions of the .dxf files.

Now I just need to work with the cutter in my own time and figure this out.

 

[dgallup]

There are many low cost or free 2D CAD programs that you can use to read & manipulate DXF, DWG, etc. data. One I use is DraftSight from Dassault. It is free (you have to register) and I have found it to be a perfect AutoMAD replacement. It would be a very easy way to independently verify your Pro/E WF2 output.

I have been using WF2 for many years, just switched to WF4 this week. I have output lots of DXF files to other programs and never had an issue with accuracy. I do not think there is any difference between WF2 & WF4 in the accuracy of the DXF output. Cad programs do not lose accuracy as they age.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[AChurilla86]

Hmmm, I might as well get DraftSight. I would like to be able to verify my drawings.

I have been busy working on other things and don't have time for dealing with the cutting and its reading of .dxf files. Maybe I will figure it out later on when I am less busy.

Thanks for your help.