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Solidworks & Surfcam

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mncad

Industrial
Dec 27, 2002
256
Does anyone else use Surfcam for their SW models? We have SW2003 and our programmer that uses Surfcam keeps telling me that can't hardly use the SW models because all the lines come in so broken. He always wants the model saved as a .dwg which is very dangerous to the the scaling that can take place. I have downloaded the interpreter from Surfcam but he says that is no better. Anyone else have this problem?

thanks,
mncad
 
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Not used SurfCAM. But when we convert our SW Models/Assemblies to use in Fluent/Gambit (higher end CFD stuff, similar but better than Cosmos), we have issues.

We have used ACIS and IGES to convert and import into it. Some of the end points do NOT line up. Some surfaces are too choppy. Etcettera.

Having 2 end points a very small distance apart is NOT good when you want a "mesh" to work.

At one point we assumed that it was an Import issue on their side, but then we changed our minds when a totally different program displayed similar flaws.

So we wrote it off as a SW export issue, especially after we had a Cosmos Engineer (he worked FOR Cosmos) import an ACIS export from SW into Cosmos, and he had issues also.


Mr. Pickles
 
I thought Surfcam had a function like Gibbs that would explode boundry edges of a solid, this will give you native surfcam 2d geometry. I do not know if that is why he is talking about lines, why does he not just machine the solid model entities? We have no problem with Gibbs and SW working together on geometry.
 
We have used Solidworks and Surfcam for a number of years. Currently we are using SW 2003 and Surfcam 2002 and 2002 Plus. We have had no problems as you have described, that is, broken lines. We use the free "prt2dsn" translator, that allows you to save your SW files directly in the Surfcam format. The translator saves your sketches on one level (handy), the wireframe on another, and the surfaces on a third level. We have used it for 3 and 4 axis work. Having the sketches is helpful to us because it allows us to have more flexibility in controlling the cutter. (We don't do mold work, but use specialized form cutters.)

I thought broken lines was only a Microstation problem.

Tom S.
 
Tom,

Is your Surfcam a 3 axis version? Ours is a 2 axis version and I'm beginning to think that (and some lack of user training) is the heart of the problem.
 
We use the 4 axis version, but I don't think that would make any difference. I have never found a gap on something created from scratch in Solidworks. If the Solidworks drawing was created starting from Microstation, then there could be problems.

On the other hand, if you were doing a pocket, for example, in Surfcam and picked the outline of the pocket from the wireframe, there are often "branches" where two lines meet (precisely because they do meet; exactly) and you have to select which branch is the one that you want to be part of your pocket.

There is definitely training involved. That is why we use solidworks, because it is so much easier to use for drawing (modeling) than Surfcam. However, Surfcam is excellent for creating the tool paths, G-code etc. My experience is that it is a pretty steep learning curve for Surfcam.

Tom S.
 
You actually never got around to saying exactly what it was, you were exporting... version 5 acis solids? Version 12 DXF's? are these models, or 3d wireframes that are being exported, or ???
 
Surfcam 2002+ can directly read the SW2003. Or Surfcam offers a program that operates inside of SW that allows you to save the file with a .dsn extension which is what Surfcam requires. We still have the same problems no matter which way we try it.

 
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