Creating Surface from Excel (points generated in Matlab)

[westlam]

Hi All,

I have a specific request from a customer who is switching to Inventor from Solid Edge. They would like to create a complex surface from 5000 points, which are generated by Matlab then go into the form of Excel. Is there a way to do this in Inventor or Fusion? 

Oringinal comment from customer:

"We use the SolidEdge ‘bluesurf' command to produce a complex surface from 5000 points generated by Matlab, placed in an excel file and imported into SolidEdge."

Has anyone come across this command in SolidEdge?

I've had a look on the forum, and this is the closest I could find to my issue:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/spline-a-surface-from-points-imported-from-excel/m-p/4...

So I'm assuming it's as simple as opening up a 3D sketch and importing points, but as there are 5000 I'm wondering if this will be able to compute. I don't have the Excel data but have requested it. The bit I struggle to get my head around (personally) is how does it compute which point is connected to which point? 

Any help very much appreciated as always. 

[admaiora]

Hi West,

that's the path

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcartic...

I believe that there are no issues for 5000 point. (Not sure)

[swalton · Accepted solution]

I don't think Inventor knows how to convert a point cloud to a surface.  See @SteveMDennis's comment on this thread: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/surface-through-work-points/td-p/6650645

Civil3d can do it.  See: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-civil-3d/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/...

I have not used Resurf, but it looks helpful: http://www.resurf3d.com/Pointcloud2Nurbs.htm  A $150 purchase is much less than Civil3d....

[westlam]

Hi both, 

Thanks for your reply. It's the create surface from points that appear to be missing in Inventor. I think Alias has it as well so it's possible in Autodesk technology, just not Inventor (based on the fact that inventor is primarily a solid modeler i would presume??).

Thank you all for your help and links.

Wonder if it'll be put into Fusion?

Thanks,

Mike