Problem export to IGES and I-DEAS

[peternoon]

Has anybody been asked to export files (parts mostly) to I-DEAS and had problems at the other end. I am importing a set of part files that were exported from Solidworks to IGES and I have trouble importing the larger files (over 4 MB).

Has anybody found a solution to export to I-DEAS otherwise or is there a way in the settings for export whereby the IGES files will be smaller?

Thanks

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

4MB is not very big! Are you sure it is only a size problem?

 

[rollupswx]

What other formats will I-DEAS read?
STEP?
Parasolid?
ACIS?
What Options do you have set on export of the IGES in SWx?
surfaces?
solids?
Have you tried with a simple IGES cube from SWx, maybe the file size isn't the problem at all?
Can you attach the IGES here?

 

[peternoon]

Hello,

Thanks for the answer. My version can accept VDA and SET too, I have never used them though. Can Solidworks export to these formats?

Now I am not sure it is the file size because I have just imported and 11Mb IGES file. Maybe some of the files are corrupted but the software says there were no errors when importing them, the parts are just not there. Or there could be something in the parts (funny surfaces or something) that makes them fail.

I can choose whether to import as solids or surfaces but both fail

See if the site will allow me to post an IGES file here. It is one of the files that failed. Maybe you can try and let me know if you can import it into any system then I will know if the file is fine or not.

No, cannot upload it. Below is a link to it. It lasts 3 days only

 

[ctopher]

Can you try your issue on another PC to see if the same problem occurs?

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[peternoon]

I cannot try the problem on another PC. I only have 1 licence-1 PC

 

[rollupswx]

I opened in two programs and did not find a body error, but did find interference between parts. Not sure if this would cause a problem in I-DEAS. Try creating a simple assembly of a couple of interferring cubes as a test.

BTW - if you right click on the IGES file in Windows Explorer and select Send to Compressed (zipped) Folder the resulting file is less than 1 Meg for faster uploading and downloading.

 

[peternoon]

I think it must be the intereference between the parts. Also, I noticed that on the parts that I imported without a problem the tolerance was 0.01mm whereas the parts that failed had a tolerance of 1mm so I wonder if the olde versions of I-DEAS cannot build parts accurately with such large tolerance.

I will go back to the person who created the files.

Can you tell me if in Solidworks, when you export parts, can you select what tolerance you want?

Thanks for testing importing the parts.

 

[kellnerp]

My version can accept VDA and SET too,

VDA is a very good choice from SW to other CAD. IGES is the worst choice. VDA is called VDAFS in SW.



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[peternoon]

Thanks all for the feed-back. This thing about exporting to VDA is interesting. I have to try it.

 

[raneu]

From my experiances, I-DEAS is the WORST program to translate to and from. I used to design molds, and we took in a lot of customer data. We had Pro-E, Cimlinc, Solidworks, and Mastercam, and had a very hard time bringing files in and exporting too SDRC from any of them. I always assumed the I-DEAS people didn't know what they were doing, but realized it was mostly the software..

 

[WH74]

A better method would be to export a parasolid. I-deas can read this is too (its not an extra cost option). you may have to change the extension or manually select the file since i-deas will be looking for a file withe a .x_t or .x_b extension (text or binary).

 

[WH74]

Also there are old non supported options for importing iges and other files that seemed to work better. they are only accessible from hidden menu. I-deas tech support should be able to get you to them if you ask about them.

 

[peternoon]

Thanks for the feedback. I have also noticed that even that Edrawings software has trouble importing the enormous files that some people make. I have tried to inmport files in STEP and IGES of 50Mb in size and upwards and the software just stops responding as it tries to import them.