Solidworks to I-Deas

[dklarz]

I've recently joined a consulting firm that has come up with a short term need for an Ideas project. Although I have a strong backgroung in several mid-range CAD systems (Solidworks, SolidEdge, Inventor...) I haven't used I-deas. My question - is there a way to bring in a SolidWorks file into I-deas and maintian features? I know that both use the Parasolid kernal but I'm not sure if I can bring in true geometry.

Thankls for the help - Dadelar

 

[RCDLtd]

I-DEAS doesn't use the Parasolid Kernel, so I'm afraid you're left with Neutral file format translators which will leave you with an Orphan solid/surface in I-DEAS.

Does the client stipulate they must receive back a history supported model(s)? If so you really ony have one option.

 

[looslib]

The newer versions of IdeasNX do have Parasolid in them to facilitate transfers to the UG NX structures.
Even Parasolid transfers don't maintain feature history.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

 

[dklarz]

Interesting - the people here that use Ideas tell me that it uses the parasolid kernel. I'll definately need to follow up on this one. So... if standard translators don't work, is there any credence to looking into third party resources (I've seen several Internet services) that charge for translations? I'm obviously not terribly experienced in this type of process - any education is appreciated.

Thanks - Dave

 

[RCDLtd]

My knowledge of Feature Based Translators is limited, however from what I have seen of them they will not give you a result that is the equivalent of modelling the part in the receiving system.

The translator does attempt to rebuild each feature in the history of the model, but each time there is not an identical function in the sending and receiving systems it will Orphan the Surfaces for that Feature, so you end up with a tree of Orphans all Booleaned together.

When sold as a Bureau Service I've found Feature Based translations to work out rather similar in cost to remodelling the component in the required system. And afer asking a few questions I realised that that is just about what has to happen. Each time the translator hits a non-compatible Feature the user is given the option to manually re-model it, or except and Orhpan Feature.

With regards Parasolids in I-DEAS, I-DEAS11 does contain parasolid code to facillitate the Importing/Opening of Native UG/NX data, but it's outside the control of the user, only being used for UG/NX data and not any other format, so could not be used for Solidworks Data. This should not be confused with the ParasolidXT Translator that reads Parasolid Neutral files of the type ".x*_*" which would Import an Orphan Solid/Surface just like any other Neutral file format such as STEP.