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Problems with importing a Pro/E Assembly

15 REPLIES 15
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Message 1 of 16
sam.lamb
1358 Views, 15 Replies

Problems with importing a Pro/E Assembly

Hello,

I'm a new Inventor user and I apologize if this issue has been addressed somewhere in this discussion group but I searched and could not find it.  My issue is: when I import a pro/e assembly file, it appears that it only imports the associated parts from that assembly only if they are in the same folder as the assembly file.  This is not a big deal unless you use parts that are located in another folder to build the assembly.  Im my case, I use parts from several different folders.  What is the best way to fix this issue without having to put every single part file in the same folder?  I appreciate your input.

 

Thanks,

 

Sam Lamb

15 REPLIES 15
Message 2 of 16
AustinLiu
in reply to: sam.lamb

Hi Sam,

 

Could you open the Pro/ENGINEER assembly again in Pro/ENGINEER successfully?

From my experience Pro/ENGINEER must keep the assembly's components in the same folder, or else even open it again with Pro/ENGINEER, get failures.

So based on this, Inventor is unable to get those components in other folders.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong with the Pro/ENGINEER behavior, and thanks in advance.

 

-Austin



Austin-Zongjie Liu
Zongjie.Liu@autodesk.com
Software Quality Assurance Manager
Design, Lifecycle & Simulation
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 3 of 16
sam.lamb
in reply to: AustinLiu

Yes, I can still open the assembly in Pro/Engineer.  You have to designate search paths in the config.pro file for Pro/E to find the files that are not in the original folder.  This is very useful because I can keep components that are commonly used in a separate folder and I don't have to create multiple copies of them which saves space on the computer.  So, is there a way to get Inventor to search for those missing components? 

 

Thanks,

 

Sam Lamb

Message 4 of 16
JDMather
in reply to: sam.lamb

I think you will have to Pack and Go in Pro/E or Save As STEP (*.stp) your assembly.


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Message 5 of 16
swalton
in reply to: sam.lamb

We use both IV and ProE here.  My guess is that IV can't read the config.pro to find the pathing info.  Your best bet is to move your ProE files to one directory when you need to open them with IV.  I think that the backup command in the ProE file menu will put everything in a single directory. 

 

I think that IV stores the path info in the .iam file and ProE stores it in the config.pro.  It might be possible for Autodesk to change the ProE importer to ask for the config.pro file.

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Message 6 of 16
sam.lamb
in reply to: JDMather

What do you mean by pack and go?  My current workaround is creating a STEP file to import into Inventor.  I guess this will just have to work.  What sucks about doing it this way is when I get to harness and cabling, I have to pin each connector every time I import the STEP file.  I may still run into this problem when converting from pro/e to inventor files, but I haven't got it working correctly yet to try it out.  My hope is, if I get Inventor to properly import pro/e files, it will recognize the connectors I'm using and I'll have the ability to replace them with connectors I placed in the Autocad parts library.  I'll keep working at it.  There's got to be a better way!

 

Thanks,

 

Sam Lamb

Message 7 of 16
JDMather
in reply to: sam.lamb

I don't think you will see any difference between importing a STEP and importing a Pro/E assembly directly (even if you had everything in the same folder and it worked).  You are going to end up with the same feature tree of base (dumb) solids.  You should be able to set up a simple experiment to verify this.


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Message 8 of 16
AustinLiu
in reply to: sam.lamb

Hi Sam,

 

We greatly appreciate your feedback and so sorry for the inconvenience we brought to you.

 

I have reproduced your issue, and have passed on it to our development team to see whether we can get a good solution in the future.

Currently I have to say using STEP is the workaround, as JDMather pointed out.

 

Sorry again, and if you want to talk more about this case, you can get me via email.

 

Thanks,

-Austin



Austin-Zongjie Liu
Zongjie.Liu@autodesk.com
Software Quality Assurance Manager
Design, Lifecycle & Simulation
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 9 of 16
cbenner
in reply to: swalton

We used Pro E for several years, and came back to Inventor.  Many of our library parts were created during the Pro E years, and now when we need them for Inventor, we use the step files.  Like JD pointed out, however, they are just "dumb" solids.  In some cases, if I need a part that can change (as opposed to a purchased part that will not generally change) I re-model it in Inventor.  The other thing to realize is that in Pro E, pipe fittings and electrical connectors have "ports" or "pins" on them for use in Pro Piping and Pro Cabling.... these will NOT come through in a step file, and once opened in Inventor the parts will need to be authored.

 

No, Inventor cannot read a config.pro file.  But could this not be managed using projects in Inventor?  Any thoughts, JD?

 

Personally I hated that config.pro.... having to memorize or find a config setting for every stupid little thing you wanted to set.  They have a spreadsheet of the config options that filled a 1" binder!  Inventor is so much more intuitive in that area.  Not perfect, but more so.  My humble soapbox position for the day.

Message 10 of 16
sam.lamb
in reply to: cbenner

So far, I'm importing the step file, adding info to each component (pins, names, etc.), and wiring them with cable and harness.  I'm wondering, after I import the components from the step file, can I save the components in Inventor format with all their respective properties so when I import another step file assembly, I can substitute the step file components with Inventor components that already have their properties designated?  I'm just trying to look forward and reduce repetitive actions and headaches.  If you were in my position, (you have many models already created in Pro/E), what would you do to make life easiest down the road? 

Message 11 of 16
AustinLiu
in reply to: cbenner

For the "dumb" solids, maybe you can use Inventor Feature Recognition tool to get the simple features, which can avoid some duplicated work when re-model it:http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/feature_recognition/.

 

For the points and pins in pipe and cable, can you get them when read the Pro/ENGINEER files directly? Would you pleas send me a simple sample to help reproduce it? You can get me via email.

 

for the folder issue, three solutions I can see:

1. Use STEP instead, but it may cause some data missing.

2. If you still have Pro/ENGINEER, you can use BACKUP function in Pro/ENGINEER to save all the components and its assembly to one folder.

3. If no Pro/ENGINEER, have to copy them to the same folder with the top assembly.

 

We are trying to find a solution to solve the search path issue.

Thanks for your help and patience.

 

-Austin



Austin-Zongjie Liu
Zongjie.Liu@autodesk.com
Software Quality Assurance Manager
Design, Lifecycle & Simulation
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 12 of 16
AustinLiu
in reply to: sam.lamb

Sam,

 

May you please send me your samples? I wan to try to see whether there is any better solution for your case.

You can get me via email.

 

Thanks,

-Austin



Austin-Zongjie Liu
Zongjie.Liu@autodesk.com
Software Quality Assurance Manager
Design, Lifecycle & Simulation
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 13 of 16
sam.lamb
in reply to: AustinLiu

I think I've found what I'm looking for regarding importing files.  I can convert to step file, bring into Inventor, and then replace components with components that I've already authored with Inventor so I don't have to go through the authoring process more than once for each new part.  I think this should work pretty good.  I just need to create a library of parts that I've authored so I can just swap components in for wiring.  Just wondering, does the BACKUP command in Pro/E remove the files from other folders and place them in the main assembly folder, or does it just make a copy of them?  This would create a huge mess if it physically moved the files from other folders.

 

Thanks for all of your help!

 

Sam

Message 14 of 16
dodrain
in reply to: sam.lamb

importing other CAD-formats in Inventor is allways slow. Inventor often hangs when i try to import IGES or STEP-files.

 

There where collegaes who work with Solid Works and import the same files don't have any problems. I think this is a known issue for Autodesk and something to work on.

 

Message 15 of 16
sam.lamb
in reply to: dodrain

Yes dodrain, you have a really good point there.  Inventor bogs down to a slow crawl when it comes to importing STEP files and you better make sure to save it when its finally imported because Inventor is likely to crash shortly after.  I've encountered this problem several times already.  When doing a direct Pro/e to Inventor conversion, its at least 10x faster and it doesn't overload the computer.

Message 16 of 16
AustinLiu
in reply to: dodrain

Sorry for all those inconveniences.

 

About the "hang" issue, there might be caused by the translation report. Maybe next time you can try to check off the import option "Embed in Document" to see any improvement.

 

For the performance, we are trying to improve it; and if you will share us some files with bad performance on your side, it would be great.

 

Thanks to all for all your information/feedback.

-Austin



Austin-Zongjie Liu
Zongjie.Liu@autodesk.com
Software Quality Assurance Manager
Design, Lifecycle & Simulation
Autodesk, Inc.

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