Using SW as front end to ACAD

[UCengno1]

I know this is heresy to the 3-D purists but ACAD still adds a tremendous amount of flexibility to the drafting function. Is there a means to main at least a one way, SW to ACAD, link?

 

[TCARPENTER1]

Hi UCengo1,

At one time, when you installed SolidWorks, it would install a direct link into AutoCAD to do 3D models and then automatically import them into AutoCAD.

If it doesn't do this anymore, what it actually did was just automate the import/export of ACIS files from SolidWorks to AutoCAD.

If it were me, I would do all the modeling in SolidWorks, save it as ACIS file, and then import it into AutoCAD for detailing. The drawback of course is losing the parametric aspects of SolidWorks once in AutoCAD - But I would maintain the SolidWorks model/file in addtion to the AutoCAD drawing.

HTH
Todd

 

[mrspetos]

that just sounds like a lot of extra work, and a nightmare of trying to determine which revision is current/correct (the drawing or the model).

 

[wgchere]

If it were me, I would do all the modeling in SolidWorks, save it as ACIS file, and then import it into AutoCAD for detailing.

But once you had tried it, you would find yourself begging God for a time machine to undo the silliness of that decision. I have worked at two places that did that before SolidWorks had a decent detailing package. The work was a nightmare, because as soon as an engineer exported the model he started to fiddle with it, it no longer was current with the released rev, and the drawing was forevermore updated in AutoCAD, with occasional solid model imports to add new geometry. Let me qualify that--in one of those companies the Acad drawings didn't use the ACIS solid but instead use a line drawing derived from the model.

But, why? It is usually because there is a strange idea that AutoCAD is the pinnacle of drafting evolution. So lets us the high tech parametric modeling to shape the object, then use the PERFECT DRAFTING PEROGRAM to detail it. But AutoCAD doesn't let you attach GD&T frames to dimensions, doesn't let you attach datums to objects, nearly demands endless fiddling to get EXACTLY what you want… Twenty-two years after the introduction of the depth symbol, square symbol, countersink and counterbore symbols, they still don’t have it as part of their fonts—you have to leave a space and put in a block, then when you move it, it isn’t integrated, so you have stretch it!

SolidWorks is not the best detailer in the world, and it can't do some things as well as Acad, and it can't do some things that Acad can. But SolidWorks can do a lot of things that Acad can't, and it works with the model! Why compose a nice publication on a word processor, get the layout just right, and then slice it up and do a paste up for shooting a negative instead of using the digital fill and just integrating it with the printer?

Acad was nice, but it was kindergarten CAD, a transitional step between drafting on a board and copying reality in cyberspace. It's just a drafting program, but has very little power.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t insist on SolidWorks drawings looking like the AutoCAD drawings. I find that, except for certain usual cases, SolidWorks doesn’t work well with layers. They are there to allow for easy acceptance of .DWG & .DXF files, but SolidWorks handles itself just fine with it’s native abilities. It’s a different program, it will look different from AutoCAD. Make sure it meets your needs and does what you want it to, but don’t try to make it look like an AutoCAD clone. It can’t.

Time to move on.

 

[65Roses]

Yes, yes, yes, wgchere I agree with you 100%!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Beggar]

Another possibility: Create your views in SWX and then "Save As" an AutoCAD drawing in which you can then detail.

I agree in principle with wgchere but I do find that detailing in AutoCAD is sometimes more useful because of its flexibility (BTW, there is a GDT font for ACAD).

However, his/her main point is key: By going to ACAD for the drawing, you're giving up one of the main benefits of SWX et. al. -- the guarantee that updates to models are reflected in drawings.

Time spent dinking with linking would be better spent mastering the detailing package and learning to program VBA so that you can customize to your heart's content.

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