Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Hopefully someone in here will have already gone through this.... One of our customers designs plastic molded parts using IV9, they get the tooling for these parts made by a toolmaker who uses Delcam. The problem is, they design the parts "square" and let the toolmaker decide how the mold should be split, and how to draft the model. So basically, the toolmaker does all the face drafting and then sends them back a completed model, in IGES format. The problem comes when trying to get these IGES files into Inventor. In Delcam, the model is complete and watertight, in IV, the model will not stitich into a solid (some simple ones will but more complex ones will not) Delcam has a lot of options when creating IGES files so my question is :- Has anyone here got "optimum" settings for Delcam which give a clean IGES file which will then work well in Inventor 9? I realise that IGES is a file format which is best avoided but unfortunately it's the only current option. Hopefully we can tweak the Delcam output to make it as clean as possible. Thanks for any advice anyone can offer (apart from "Sell the toolmaker a copy of Inventor"!) Cheers Rory

[#2]

Hi Rory, a few tips Len Newman gave me years ago for dealing with dirty IGES files. Bring them into MDT but slacken off the system tolerance a bit (1 or 2 dp), and untick the Entity Validation option on the Miscellaneous tab or the IGESIN Options. If this brings it in clean to MDT, you can then IGESOUT again to bring into Inventor. You might want to drop the IGES version back to 5.0 and even save trimmed surfaces as bounded surfaces. Welcome to the dark world of IGES translation... John Bilton

[#3]

"John Bilton" wrote in message news:419391fd$1_2@newsprd01... > Hi Rory, a few tips Len Newman gave me years ago for dealing with dirty IGES files. > > Bring them into MDT but slacken off the system tolerance a bit (1 or 2 dp), and untick the Entity Validation option on the > Miscellaneous tab or the IGESIN Options. > > If this brings it in clean to MDT, you can then IGESOUT again to bring into Inventor. You might want to drop the IGES version back > to 5.0 and even save trimmed surfaces as bounded surfaces. > > Welcome to the dark world of IGES translation... John, I don't know about "welcome to", IGES files have been a pain in my **** for the last 8 years! I sometimes miss the days when all I used to do was design in AutoCAD and not have to worry about fixing 3D files and problems. But then I think, "do I really want to be using AutoCAD instead of Inventor?" I think you can guess the answer! Cheers for the advice by the way, I'll give it a go. Rory p.s - If Inventor could actually create drawing views of surfaces I wouldn't need to bother with this (hint hint Autodesk!)

[#4]

John, The figures you give, are they inclusive of using the IGES.opt file or do you have your own options file ? If so, would you be prepared to share it ? Duncan -- "Humour ... is one man shouting gibberish in the face of authority, and proving by fabricated insanity that nothing could be as mad as what passes for ordinary living." (Terence 'Spike' Milligan K.B.E., 1918-2002) "John Bilton" wrote in message news:419391fd$1_2@newsprd01... > Hi Rory, a few tips Len Newman gave me years ago for dealing with dirty IGES files. > > Bring them into MDT but slacken off the system tolerance a bit (1 or 2 dp), and untick the Entity Validation option on the > Miscellaneous tab or the IGESIN Options. > > If this brings it in clean to MDT, you can then IGESOUT again to bring into Inventor. You might want to drop the IGES version > back > to 5.0 and even save trimmed surfaces as bounded surfaces. > > Welcome to the dark world of IGES translation... > > John Bilton > >

[#5]

> ................................... > Has anyone here got "optimum" settings for > Delcam which give a clean IGES file which > will then work well in Inventor 9? > > I realise that IGES is a file format which is best > avoided but unfortunately it's the only current option. > Hopefully we can tweak the Delcam output to > make it as clean as possible. > ........................................ I don't know about Delcam specifically, but assuming the surfaces have been stitched into a "solid"; probably the best bet is to export as Type 186 BRep and IGESIN to MDT (options: make sure 186 is mapped to solid or part and, maybe, check IGES Tolerance (GP19)). A solid is usually the result. Repair if necessary. Export from MDT as ACIS or STEP to feed IV. > ...(apart from "Sell the toolmaker a > copy of Inventor"!) Bet you couldn't give him one. Maybe some day IV may have some real data translation capabilities. Attached is a simple test IGES. Maybe IV9 will import as a solid, v6 won't. If not maybe someone can explain why. =========================

[#6]

Jeff - IV9 does import the bath001.igs file as a solid. IV8 imports it as a solid too - however, it does not automatically promote due to some errors in the model. Is it what you are seeing in IV6? Regards, Madhan "Jeff Howard" wrote in message news:4193a074_2@newsprd01... > > ................................... > > Has anyone here got "optimum" settings for > > Delcam which give a clean IGES file which > > will then work well in Inventor 9? > > > > I realise that IGES is a file format which is best > > avoided but unfortunately it's the only current option. > > Hopefully we can tweak the Delcam output to > > make it as clean as possible. > > ........................................ > > > I don't know about Delcam specifically, but assuming the surfaces have been > stitched into a "solid"; probably the best bet is to export as Type 186 > BRep and IGESIN to MDT (options: make sure 186 is mapped to solid or part > and, maybe, check IGES Tolerance (GP19)). A solid is usually the result. > Repair if necessary. Export from MDT as ACIS or STEP to feed IV. > > > ...(apart from "Sell the toolmaker a > > copy of Inventor"!) > > Bet you couldn't give him one. Maybe some day IV may have some real data > translation capabilities. > > Attached is a simple test IGES. Maybe IV9 will import as a solid, v6 > won't. If not maybe someone can explain why. > > ========================= >

[#7]

Madhan Selvaraj wrote ... > Jeff - IV9 does import the bath001.igs file as a solid. > IV8 imports it as a solid too - however, it does not > automatically promote due to some errors in > the model. Is it what you are seeing in IV6? Hello, Madhan. IV6's behavior depends on the import options used. Healer on, Auto stitch and promote on; see attached jpg. This is what I tried before posting. If later versions will heal without destroying the model, that's progress. Healer off, Auto stitch and promote on; construction mode analysis indicates a closed quilt (all "good" edges) which can then be promoted to a solid. (With the usual "quality" error message. It's been my experience that few "foreign" models other than very simple blocky parts will come in without generating the message unless healed first.) Healer off, Auto stitch and promote off; same as above. --------------- Re "due to some errors in the model": I'll assume you mean "errors in translation", as the model can be imported as a solid unassisted and shelled to a thickness of 25 - 50 inches in a couple of other programs I tried it in. If that's a "dirty" file it doesn't seem to bother them. Thanks for taking a look. =================================

[#8]

Hi Jeff, Thanks for the information. Like I mentioned in my previous message, INV9 imports this as a solid without damaging the model. I was also able to create some drawing views. However, shelling operation to a thickness of 25-50 inches failed. We will investigate into this. By "errors in the model", I meant "the translated model does not pass Inventor quality check" which does not necessarily mean there were errors in translation because during translation, there is only a certain limit we can go to automatically heal the data in order to not-damage the original intention of the data. -Madhan "Jeff Howard" wrote in message news:41943d61_2@newsprd01... > Madhan Selvaraj wrote ... > > > Jeff - IV9 does import the bath001.igs file as a solid. > > IV8 imports it as a solid too - however, it does not > > automatically promote due to some errors in > > the model. Is it what you are seeing in IV6? > > > Hello, Madhan. > > IV6's behavior depends on the import options used. > > Healer on, Auto stitch and promote on; see attached jpg. This is what I > tried before posting. If later versions will heal without destroying the > model, that's progress. > > Healer off, Auto stitch and promote on; construction mode analysis > indicates a closed quilt (all "good" edges) which can then be promoted to a > solid. (With the usual "quality" error message. It's been my experience > that few "foreign" models other than very simple blocky parts will come in > without generating the message unless healed first.) > > Healer off, Auto stitch and promote off; same as above. > --------------- > > Re "due to some errors in the model": I'll assume you mean "errors in > translation", as the model can be imported as a solid unassisted and > shelled to a thickness of 25 - 50 inches in a couple of other programs I > tried it in. If that's a "dirty" file it doesn't seem to bother them. > > Thanks for taking a look. > > ================================= > >

[#9]

Gotcha. Thanks again.