Interoperability from Fusion 360 to SolidWorks

[connorvega1]

Hi,

I have a potential client that works with SolidWorks and wants to know how what type of files she would receive from me and how well would they import into SolidWorks. Specifically she says that they would require any files they receive to be able to be imported to Solidworks for future changes/updates.Additionally, I would like to know what functionality when exporting from F360 to SolidWorks. 

I am not acquainted with SolidWorks, so I am not able to give her an honest judgment. If any of you experts are willing to give out your opinion it would be much appreciated. 

Naturally importing from SolidWorks to Fusion 360 has already been solved (right?). 

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi!

You can export step, sat or iges files from F360. All of them are readable in SOLIDWORKS, but step seem to work better. sat is also good, iges not so good. All parts will end up as a solid (or surface) but it's possible to use feature recognition or direct editing for changing the parts after import. Importing SW 2016 files are working fine in F360.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Gunnar

[PhilProcarioJr]

@connorvega1

Getting your files imported will not be a problem.

The problem will arise when your client wants to make changes to the parts.

Now if they are simple parts then feature recognition will work fine but if they are not you might as well forget it.

I use both programs everyday so I am speaking from experience.

Always export from fusion to STEP when going to Solidworks, this will give you the least amount of issues.

Just my 2 cents....

[kb9ydn]

As long as the client understands that the files from Fusion will be imported as *dumb solids* (i.e. no design history) then it should work fine.

C|

[PhilProcarioJr]

@kb9ydn

@connorvega1 said "Specifically she says that they would require any files they receive to be able to be imported to Solidworks for future changes/updates."

So it will be a problem.  Especially if there is an agreement that the files will be editable and the client pays for the service then can't edit the files.

I wouldn't risk losing a client over it, but thats just me.

[connorvega1]

Thank you all! Great professional advice. This is quickly turning into my new favorite forum. 

[Anonymous]

From what I have seen so far mixing Solidworks and Fusion is a lot like mixing oil and water. It can be done but is it worth the effort? and what does the end product look like?

Oil and water with enough agitation can be  mixed for a while but eventually fall apart.

Solidworks and fusion are the same, you can mix them but in reality what you  end up with is foamy oil 😞

No matter which way you go use lose something.

You spend hours working on a detailed part in one or the other environment and end up with a blob in the other. Better to make drawings from one and bite the bullet and redo it in the other environment. It may be good for Marketing types to say you can import between the two but when the S#@t hits the fan, better off redrawing.

Also keep in mind that Solidworks doesn't even transport both ways between their own versions (unless they finally fixed that, when I took evening classes in Solidworks I had to tote my desktop to class because my student version was newer than the class version).

My 2 cents worth

[BrandonMac]

The upgrade of fusion seems to generate a error when exporting a Sat to solidworks. 

[TheCADWhisperer]

Can you Attach *.f3d and the resulting *.sat that is an issue?

[BrandonMac]

I was able to take a high res polygon model convert it to t-splines then to BRep and then export to sat. I no longer can do this unless I forgot something. anyone made this conversion recently? 

[BrandonMac]

I decided to import a 1m polygon box low poly and it seemed to work. could be the object is to dense I am working with.

[chrisplyler]

I don't know how to answer the original question.

But I've got some business advice for this type of situation. Take it or leave it as you see fit,it's only free advice from a stranger. But here it comes....

If you create a file for your client, that file is your intellectual property. If you are the only one that has it, the client must hire you again for future changes. Well, they could hire someone else to start from scratch, but it will be a lot easier/cheaper for them to hire you again.

Once you give them a working file, and they can make small updates/changes themselves, then you had a 1-time job only. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I'm just saying that if that's what they want, you put and additional upfront fee on top of the actual work, for rights to the file, or "digital deliverables" or whatever, that gives you at least a little bit of compensation for giving up your intellectual property and possible loss of future work that could be related.

Giving away your design files DOES cost you something. This is true whether you're a product engineer, a graphic designer, an architect, or whatever. Control your intellectual property rights or get compensated for handing them out.