Filling Splines in Drafting

[caschroder]

I have a name tag I am trying to make with another companies logo on it. We have the logo as a .dxf. When I import it into NX, it comes in as lines and splines. When I try to fill these in drafting mode to a solid color, it will not let me fill all of them for some reason. I have tried everything I can think of, but still cant seem to figure it out. I wasn't sure if anyone had tricks on how to get this to work?
Thanks,
Chad

 

[JohnRBaker]

If you're attempting to use Crosshatch/Fill option, the problem is probably that the imported curves are not forming closed boundaries or may not be truly planar. You may need to fix-up the curves a bit to get closed/planar boundaries. Also you may need to adjust the tolerances set in the Crosshatch/Fill dialog.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
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To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[caschroder]

Is there an easy way to check to see if they are closed? I think I was checking if they are planar by using Analysis --> Curve --> Continuity. Is that they way to do that as well?
Thanks for your reply.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Usually just try using any of the operations which allows for the selection of a 'connected' set of curves. Note that you can import the curves into a sketch and they apply automatic constraints which, if the end-points of the curves are within the 'capture' tolerance, will be made coincident.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[caschroder]

I tried making them auto constrain coincident and I think it made it worse. I cannot extrude some of the sections I could before now.

 

[JohnRBaker]

It's possible that three or more end-points have been made coincident which would be a problem. You're probably going to have zoom way in and do the 'repairs' (make coincident) manually to make sure that the right end-points are matched-up.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[caschroder]

Thanks, I will try this or look into it at least and see if I cant find anything. Do you recommend import the dxf as lines and arcs? Or as splines?

 

[JohnRBaker]

I might not use the splines if this meant that the strings of ORIGINAL lines and arcs were being converted into a single spline, but if the lines and arcs are created by approximating the ORIGINAL splines, then stick with the splines.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Toost]

I would guess that, in this case, import as a spline would be better.
Autocad has an object type called "Poly Line" which i think is a degree 1 spline, i.e a spline where the shape is a "line" (linear in correct words) between the points.
if / when this is converted into lines arcs there will be very many lines created, with as many possible junction problems.

Autocad data also , in my experience, quite often is drawn in different parallel planes, what looks like say X-Y is X-Y but with offsets.
I don't know if NX has a checking tool for flatness so instead i Project the curves to a plane.

Then the next problem is to verify duplicates.
The method i use is Edit- Hide... then i zoom in and single select one curve at a time walking around the entire profile and when everything is highlighted press OK.
What then remains on the screen is probably duplicates and should (?) be deleted.

Regards,
Tomas

 

[SDETERS]

I usually recreate this using points. It depends how the DXF was created. If it was created using Photoshop usually that DXF is a mess and has all kinds of issues. So I bring this into NX and I just start laying points on top of the curves, then I use spline through points to redo the image. I know this takes a long time but it looks really nice and you do not have to mess around with a bunch a little bitty surfaces from the DXF file.

 

[Xwheelguy]

I've read somewhere that DXF can only handle up to degree 3 splines - if possible, I'd see what an IGES file turned out to be after import.

Tim Flater
NX Designer
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