Unigraphics to CATIA V5 Translation

[swhcadguy]

The company I'm working with has standardized on using CATIA V5 as their design software. CATIA V5 is the only 3D CAD solution, in-house. However recently, the company has been taking on more and more General Motors programs. This means they're receiving a lot of Unigraphics data that needs to translate in order to be opened in CATIA.

I've been tasked to find the best solution that translates the data in a timely and cost effective manner, without jeporadizing the quality of the data.

I'm looking at and evaluating several solutions:
CADCAM-E's CAT5/UG (

http://www.cadcam-e.com)

Capvidia's 3D Vision (

http://www.capvidia.com)

Delcam's PS-Exchange (

http://www.delcam.com)

Elysium's CADporter and CADdoctor (

http://www.elysiuminc.com)

Proficiency's Collaboration Gateway (

http://www.proficiency.com)

Theorem Solutions' CADverter (

http://www.theorem.co.uk)

Translation Technologies' 3D Evolution and Acc-u-Trans (

http://www.translationtech.com)

TransMagic's TransMagic Plus (

http://www.transmagic.com)

SolidWorks Corps' Solidworks 2004 (

http://www.solidworks.com)

UGS's Unigraphics NX (

http://www.ugs.com)

My question to you is, what software applications are you using to do this type of file translation?

Thanks for your input,
Scott

 

[Lambrecht]

We are using Cad Doctor (Elysium). It works great, but it only handles Parasolid files. I cannot import a UG *.prt file. this can be a roadblock if you do not have a seat of UG in house. GM does not usually volunteer to write out parasolids nor do they like the fact of designing in Catia. I hope you don't have to send anything back to GM.

Mark L.

Mark L.
ValeoSylvania

 

[marky]

Hi Scot,

I've noticed it has been a while since you posted your'e thread and was wondering what conclusion you have drawn? I to have just been tasked with a similar and urgent project. We are receiving Unigraphics NX2 assembly and part files (.prt) and need to import them into CATIA V5 R11.

Thanks for any input.

Marcus

 

[swhcadguy]

Marcus,

Based on the submissions I was provided by the companies listed in the initial posting, I recommended that the company purchase a single license of Unigraphics NX2 with the STEP translator. Importing the STEP file exported from Unigraphics into CATIA V5 provided the best results, based on the files used for the evaluation. As the company had a license of I-DEAS available to be migrated to Unigraphics NX2, this was also the most cost effective solution.

Note however that this evaluation was done six months ago, so there are most likely new releases of all of the tranlation applications evaluated. I provided copies of my results to each company that submitted translations and outlined the areas where their solution had translation issues. Some of the companies acknowledged their shortcomings and indicated that my feedback would be used in future product development.

If you'd like an edited copy of the results go to

http://www.catiav5forum.de

and do a search for "What application do you use to translate Unigraphics data into CATIA V5 data?" or my user login "swh_cadguy". Drop me an e-mail from there.

Scott

 

[Xwheelguy]

I'm a dedicated UG user but browse this forum every now & then. There isn't much talk about it, but UGS now offers a v5 translator which I believe is NOT a 3rd party software, meaning you purchase it directly from UGS. However, I do not have a license to run it nor am I sure if it performs both importing & exporting. It may only import CATIA data.

I don't have much information to offer as far as the functionality or success rates, but some of you who've already purchased a seat of UG & are having problems exporting from UG & importing into CATIA using STEP may want to get a temporary license & see how well it works. Make SURE it's not CATIA release specific (V5R9, V5R10, etc.).

Hope this helps.

Tim Flater
Senior Designer
Enkei America, Inc.

http://www.enkei.com

 

[cadmgr]

Tim,
THe new translator that UGS has implemented is for V4 - V5 issues are still being worked out. This is a plug-in (UGS did not write it) and although you can read .model files, any catexp,catdata, etc will not work.

As for CATIA - Dessault offers a nifty UG importer from native format - I have used this many times and all you need to do is add existing component, select the native UG part and it add's it into the Native Catia Product file and saves it in this format. You can then STEP it out etc.. Very nice but it is ~5K US.

For those who do not want to go the purchase of another CAD system - you can always use the Theorem services - Tony Ranger and Stuart Thurby have a fantastic product out there...

There are others if this does not help - I can outline a few more less expensive options possibly.

P.S. If you are sending data to GM - Native UG will be your only choice as they make you run the GMToolkit to verifications etc. on the models.