Help creating IGES files using CSG Sphere and Cylinder

[dmc300]

Hello Everyone,

Excuse me for being completely new and very uninitiated with the software.

I have a perhaps quite unconventional application of Inventor. In short: I want to create IGES files very simple composite, solid forms. See the specification as described here:

https://wiki.eclipse.org/IGES_file_Specification

Under the headers 'Right Circular Cylinder, (type 154)' and 'Sphere (Type 158)'

I want to create IGES files that, inside the data, describe a shape as the union of solid spheres and solid cylinders by only specifying the center and radii of the spheres, and similar parameters for cylinders.

I want to do this, because when I fully understand the structure of these IGES files, I can generate automatic 3D designs which consist of procedurally generated, randomly places spheres and cylinders directly to IGES files. But first I need to be able to construct them by hand to see what they look like. In the end, this will be used to 3D print procedurally generated art. I am only the artist, not the lab technician.

Is Inventor the correct software for this? Is this the correct place to ask this question?

Any pointers in a forward direction would be greatly appreciated.

[JDMather]

Attach the *.ipt file of your initial attempt here.

[dmc300]

Hi JD Mather,

Thanks for your quick reply. Unfortunately, I had already tried to create .ipt and composite .iam projects, also using the basic 3D model menu you have screenshotted. However, when you try to save these as .igs files, and then inspect the contents of the files (for instance with a simple program like notepad) they actually describe the *surface* of the sphere using a large number of points, which I assume is the triangulation of the surface, becoming more finely meshed as one increases the number of faces selected to place the sphere. This might be useful as a plan B, but the format I have access to is initially just positions of the centers - and radii of the spheres, not a triangulation of the surface.

You have to imagine the products I want to create consist of hundreds of spheres with different positions and radii, (and a similar number of cylinders) and I have access to a list of their centre positions and radii. Then I want to automatically create a .igs file that has all of these spheres and cilinders in them. It would not be feasable to enter all of these coordinates by hand using the menu of 3D models.

In order to automate it, I would like to be able to inspect a .igs file in which the spheres and cylinders are also described by their centre positions and radii, not by a triangulation of the surface. According to the documentation, this should be possible.

Hope this clarifies my question. In any case, thank you for your help.

[JDMather]

@dmc300 wrote:

Hope this clarifies my question.

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As you pursue this issue - you should include this additional information in your problem description.

[lena.talkhina]

Hello @dmc300  !

Great to see you here on Inventor Forum.

Did you find a solution?
If yes, please click on the "Accept as Solution" button as then also other community users can easily find and benefit from the information.
If not please don't hesitate to give an update here in your topic so all members know what ́s the progression on your question is and what might be helpful to achieve what you ́re looking for. 🙂

[dmc300]

Hi all,

Unfortunately it doesn't appear inventor has what I need. In fact, I would go so far as to state that the data type (with true solids) in the IGES file I was referring to is probably depricated in any modern 3d drawing software, but I'm not sure. I have moved to Vectorworks, a different program, that has Vectorscript Python API, so I can write a script in the python language with some custom native commands to create cylinders and spheres automatically, and then just export the file from there.

Thanks for the help and good luck to anyone trying to do the same. Sorry I couldn't keep it in the family 🙂

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Inventor does support IGES solid translation. But, it seems to use 186 (Manifold Solid) + 196 (Sphere Surface) + 192 (Cylinder SurfacE). Do you have to use 158?

Many thanks!