Useful geometry out of Catia for 2D pattern cutting

[SteveR1822]

I have been struggling to get good, usable 2D flat pattern data out of Catia for 2D NC cutting. We use Sigma Nest to optimize our material usage and programming for the Water Jet and we have always sent DXF files to it regardless of the originating CAD system. The DXF files created by Catia are virtually useless (gaps and overlaps) while DXFs out of Unigraphics or Rhino work great.
It is inconceivable to me that I can’t use my data directly out of Catia without having to leapfrog it thru UG or Rhino first.

PLEASE, PLEASE anyone; tell me how you deal with this issue! And no I don’t have any Catia MFG licenses.

 

[DBezaire]

Steve,
I use dxf out for water jet. I think it's how your geometry is created. I intersect my data to a plane to get a clean section. I will project any additional data if the section plane did not cut through the furthest most point.

Regards,
Derek

 

[Azrael]

Don't know which version you are running but try to set variable DXF_ARC_EXPORT=2 if that doesn't work try to set it to 1

 

[SteveR1822]

I am using 18, 19, and 20; (downloaded 21 yesterday). I've all but given up on DXFs all together. I have one more test pending using the environment variable shown above; I found it on anther thread, thank you though. If it fails I will find a way to automate data conversions from Iges to DXF.

Iges files works but it seems to be quite a bit larger in data size which slows the nesting program down. We just got a new machine for the programmer that has 64 bit win 7 and 12 gigs of RAM. Hopefully that will make a difference on the data usage side and I wont have to convert my Iges file to DXFs