HELP! How Do I Get Advance Steel To Import STEP and Detail Drawing To Show A Solid?

[kthao7]

Greetings all,

I have tried and have researched all over. Went as far as downloading the free 30-day Graitec Trial to see if it will help as well. I am not familiar or have ever used the PowerPack from Graitec so any pointers on this would be helpful as well.

I have a STEP file that I am trying to import and add as part of my model for detailed drawings. Importing the file was not an issue, however, after importing and making a detail drawing, the object that was imported from the STEP file is detailed as a non-solid and appears as lines in the detail drawing. *Note that in model the object does appear as a solid object.

Does anyone have any idea on how I could get this to appear as a solid after creating detail drawings, with and/or without the powerpack?

I have tried exploding after import, as suggested by other articles, and the result is the same, non-solid in the detailed drawing.

Hoping someone can shine in.

Thank you in Advance. 

See attached for the STEP file and .dwg after imported.

[Lewk_SGS · Accepted solution]

What I do when I download STEP files from somewhere like McMaster-Carr is I'll IMPORT (command) the STEP file into a new 3D drawing. Then I'll explode it. Any individual 3D solids that are there, I will take each one and then use Slice in the Extended Modeling Tab, in the panel Solid Editing. Then I will use Union in the same Solid Editing panel to rejoin the pieces back together. This enables Advance Steel to "own" the solid. From there, I'll save it as it's own drawing then pull it into my model as a special part.

I have also made sure that in the Drawing Style Manager under any views that I use in the Objects Presentation that I have Special Parts in there with:

Geometry: All | Depth: Any | Presentation: Visible Hidden

[kthao7]

Thank you.

This was very helpful in guiding me to my solution.

For whoever may run into similar situations.

Prior to this, I had exploded the imported object and had assumed that it was a solid after execution without confirming. I realized, after following your instructions, the STEP file I have imported had some parts that required more than one "explode" to become a solid recognized by Advance Steel. To figure out what parts needed to be further exploded I used "quick select" to select 3-D solids and then "isolate objects (Hide Objects)" to hide the currently selected 3-D solids. Repeat "explode", "quick select", and "Isolate Objects (Hide Objects)" until all the imported object from the STEP file are solids. This allowed it to be represented as a solid in the detail drawings moving forward.

Note: I would recommend importing into a separate drawing, turning it into a solid, copy and then paste into your projects model.

[Sebastian_Eiche]

there're a few lisp tools for such operation. these tools will explode all blocks until there're no block existing anymore. use a websearch for Explodeallblock or something similar. You also find an example here in the forum: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/net/command-to-explode-all-blocks-in-a-drawing/td-p/12127690

[kthao7]

Thank you. I appreciate the input.