converting a 3d surface model to a solid model

[Anonymous]

i have a 3d surface model of a tube and i would like to convert it to a solid model .the tube is very complex in shape along its lenght and has varying diameter. I didnt draw it orginally but rather recieved it in an ascii file format. i opened it in inventor 8 and now i want to work on it. In the left hand dialogue box all that is shown about the drawing is group. any suggestions

[Anonymous]

Open the CONSTRUCTION folder and RMB on GROUP. Then choose PROMOTE. Hopefully it will promote into a solid. If not, maybe post the part or IGES/STEP/SAT whatever file you received. -- Rui "Vincent.Lawlor" wrote in message news:14299406.1096370770890.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... > i have a 3d surface model of a tube and i would like to convert it to a solid model .the tube is very complex in shape along its lenght and has varying diameter. I didnt draw it orginally but rather recieved it in an ascii file format. i opened it in inventor 8 and now i want to work on it. In the left hand dialogue box all that is shown about the drawing is group. any suggestions

[Anonymous]

Can you use thicken/Offset to make it solid?

[Anonymous]

no i dont think so

[Anonymous]

i tried this but it result in a series of surfaces not solids am i doing something wrong

[Anonymous]

Then try using the stitch tool. You must have a watertight envelope for it to stitch to a solid. If this is not the case open the file in MDT module of AIS and fix the surfaces there. Save as IGES and then try stitching again in Inventor.
Can you post the file?

[Anonymous]

i will give it a go here is the file, if it workg let me know how you did it
thanks for the advice, i have zipped the file its really small

[Anonymous]

This isn't the IGES file. Try opening the file you sent in Notepad and read what it says.

[Anonymous]

An xli is a report generated by an import routine. Try posting the ipt or original neutral translation you are working with (importing), not an IV output (import and export are both susceptible to munging the data).

[Anonymous]

sorry posted wrong one. this file is zipped and is originally an IGS file format when unzipped

[Anonymous]

What are the disks inside the tube? Are they intended parts or artifacts from the creation of the tube? What is the wall thickness of the tube? (Your tube shows zero wall thickness and no ends.) A physical tube has an outside wall , inside wall and end surfaces connecting the two.

[tbryant]

Try this.
You said it was a tube, is it suposed to have a constant wall thichness?
I can try shelling it for you if it is.

Todd Bryant
Precision Industrial Automation

[Anonymous]

yes its supposed to have constant wall thickness. This is more like it. how did you do it.?? Also would it be possible to put an axis line along the length of this nowso i can sweep a hole of constant diameter? , to create it into a tube? Once again thanks its nearly there

[tbryant]

What is the wall thickness suppsed to be. The easiest way to do it is with a shell command. When I tried shelling the model I sent you I found a bad face that I have to delete and repair so I don't think you will be able to do it with that model.

Todd Bryant

[Anonymous]

wall thickness is 500 microns, so how did you create the model in the file you posted previously and also how can i give it a wall thickness as i have another larger file similar to this one to do
thanks

[Anonymous]

Didn't see you wall thickness before creating.
Had to use a more robust SolidWorking software to fix.
file too big to post here.
http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/DSG322/Student%20Gallery/rca%20tube.zip
J.D.

[tbryant]

I did the the same way that JD did. I opened it in a different software package and fixed the bad faces. If you have other files like this you may want to look at working on the surfaces in Mechanical Desktop. I don't have much experience with it, but I have seen others do some healing and surfacing in it.

[Anonymous]

thats it, brilliant how did you do this as i need to correct another model which is to big to post?

[Anonymous]

> thats it, brilliant how did you do this as i need to correct > another model which is to big to post? Vincent, without any intention of being offensive, the deck is stacked against you. Inventor is not well suited for the task and the how to's to get Inventor to get what you need (? what do you need to do with the models?), if even possible, would take a while to convey. To complicate matters the originating software / operator combination doesn't seem to be any more well suited to the task. It's hard to say without knowing intent, what's driving the design, but those surfaces are ... they look like they are less than ideal for conveying whatever the intent is. Don't know what your options are, but I'd hand it off to someone that has SWX or Pro/E. They will both stitch and shell the posted tube and can probably do whatever you need to do with it afterward (drawings, additional operations?). Whether or not you'll be able to use the data, do anything except look at it, in IV afterward is still very "iffy". (Best possible solution; get with the designer and get a better model to start with. There is probably no reason to have 60 surfaces to get that shape, for them to be as "busy" and lumpy as they are, or to have the curvature discontinuities they do.) If you don't get any better offers (Adesk pick up on it?) and you want to email me the other translation, can wait a day or so, I'll see if I can put it together and get it translated into IV (if you are using 5.3 this won't do you any good) or send you a *.stp.

[Anonymous]

jeff
none taken, regarding the drawing it depicts the right coronary artery of the human heart, THAT'S THE INTENT. The design, and the drawing is poor as you pointed out but the surfaces were originally built from 2d scans of the heart and artery from a living being so its impossible to get original dimension of living tissue in any another way. After looking at the drawing more closely the surface ar not matching at all correctly so i need to join or stitch them as you suggested. could you do this for me the other file depicts the left coronary artery produced in the same way. The wall thickness of 500 microns should be on the outside surface of the current drawing. In reality i would love to have the drawing continuous as one surface or solid tube with an axis running down the middle.

All in all the chances of getting any more original dimensions from this is really slim so im stuck i hope this clears up
anyway thaks for the help and comments so far

vincent