Solidworks export lower-case extension?

[peterwhatcreates]

We have users who send data to our engineers who use other software packages, and they have trouble with the all-caps, more-than-three-letter extensions that Solidworks uses, especially for STEP export. Is there a way to change this default so that SW always uses 3-letter, lower-case extensions?

 

[SBaugh]

The extension on the file does not matter. But to answer your question, no you can't.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

If you are in the SW Forum Check out the FAQ section

To make the Best of Eng-Tips Forums FAQ731-376

 

[peterwhatcreates]

Our engineer says this about import into Pro/E:

"Whenever we (Eng) receive an export file from (designers) we have to rename as follows before we can use it

1.change .STEP to .stp or .iges to .igs if necessary
2.remove all upper case letters in the name ( suffix or prefix)
3.remove all spaces in the name ( suffix or prefix)"

Perhaps he is mistaken?

 

[ctopher]

Interesting. Must be why my customer reads my IGS and STEP files in as junk. I will try with the lower case.

 

[SBaugh]

I just saved my model to a STEP file and it did save it in upper case "*.STEP" file. It opens fine in SW, I have no issues. Now if another CAD package is having a hard time opening them. Then it's their problem not SW. It would fall under their CAD VAR (not yours) for them to have the ability to open the files, because the extension is still a STEP file whether or not it's saved "STEP" or "step" - It's still a STEP file, anyway you slice it.

That goes for "IGS" or "igs" files too.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

If you are in the SW Forum Check out the FAQ section

To make the Best of Eng-Tips Forums FAQ731-376

 

[rocheey]

>> "It's still a STEP file, anyway you slice it."

Freudian slip ? Arent Step files "sliced" along the Z Axis ?

 

[Stoker]

Yes this can be done. The "save as" dialog defaults to upper case extensions, so you will have to manually change the upper case letters if you do a "file-save as". The better way to do this is to use a macro. The following will save the current part document as a step file in the same folder with the same name, but using only lower case characters. Paste into a blank macro, link to a toolbar button and you can do your saving with one press of a button and no typing.

Option Explicit

Dim swApp, Doc As Object

Const swDocPART = 1
Const swMbWarning = 1
Const swMbOk = 2

Dim BoolStatus As Boolean
Dim LongStatus As Long
Dim e As Long
Dim w As Long

Dim Msg As String
Dim DocName As String

Sub main()

Set swApp = CreateObject("SldWorks.Application")
Set Doc = swApp.ActiveDoc

If ((Doc Is Nothing) Or (Not (Doc.GetType Eqv swDocPART))) Then
Msg = "A part document must be active to use this command!"
LongStatus = swApp.SendMsgToUser2(Msg, swMbWarning, swMbOk)
End

Else
DocName = LCase(Doc.GetPathName)
DocName = Left(DocName, Len(DocName) - 7) & ".step"

BoolStatus = Doc.SaveAs4(DocName, 0, 0, e, w)

If BoolStatus = False Then
Msg = "Failed to save IGS document!"
LongStatus = swApp.SendMsgToUser2(Msg, swMbWarning, swMbOk)
Else
Msg = "Saved part as " & DocName
LongStatus = swApp.SendMsgToUser2(Msg, swMbWarning, swMbOk)
End If

End If

Set Doc = Nothing
Set swApp = Nothing

End Sub

 

[peterwhatcreates]

Thanks - this could be very helpful!