Importing 3d curves

[PlasticFantastic]

Does anyone have experience reverse-engineering with Solidworks? I am working with a surface model of a handle that is created by lofting splines. I have extractd the isoparms (section curves) in Rhino and am trying to import them into Solidworks as 3d curves and then use convert entities to dimension the curves on sketch planes. That is the goal- but I can only import surface data as iges, but not the curves. Any suggestions? The loft is finicky and is the result of much tweakage in past models (UG), so I would really like to make a faithful model.

 

[Theophilus]

We do that sort of thing from time to time. Since Rhino exports difficult-to-use geometry (such as splitting a circle into two splines), this process can be very cumbersome.

Often we will dimension features in Rhino and either create a drawing or open windows of Rhino and SolidWorks side by side and rebuild the geometry in SolidWorks by checking each feature.

When you talk about lofts, however, this will be difficult to do. Since it's been a while since I've used Rhino for this purpose, perhaps you can export to different formats (such as parasolid) and check "save curves" when exporting (if such a feature exists, as it does in SolidWorks). See if you can find any options when exporting and perhaps you can get this to work.

We've also exported to 2D DXF format brought in sketches on various planes to sketch and make features with. This is also tedious, but it works. Lofts, again, would be difficult with this method.

Hope something will work out for you.




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[SBaugh]

When importing IGES files click on the Options button that becomes avaialble in the open menu after you pick the file. In there click on "Free point/Curve Entities" "import as 3D curves".

Maybe that will work for you.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[PlasticFantastic]

My VAR resolved the issues. The iges file worked out alright. Thanks for reading. SW opeed up the iges curves just fine. Not sure what went wrong the first time around