Export Autodesk Inventor To ANSYS (step/iges) As Solid Body Instead of Surface

[Anonymous]

Good day.

I'm trying to export a part model from Inventor to ANSYS for FEA. Client prefer to use ANSYS for FEA. Problem is that ANSYS recognized the file as Surface body instead Solid body.

I tried almost all file formats (iges, step, parasolid, stl, sat) but still, same problem.

Please help thanks!!

kelly.young has embedded your image and edited your subject line for clarity: Export Autodesk Invetor to ANSYS (step/iges proble)

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

Hi jester.gacusan,

Is your Inventor part model solid or surface ?

Regards,

[Anonymous]

solid part. i don't know what is the problem.

[KevinLi-Autodesk]

If geometry in the model is a solid and have no geometry errors, Inventor should export it to be "solid" via STEP/IGES.

What's your Inventor version ? May you send the model to me via Hongyuan.Li@autodesk.com for further investigation ? You can also check if there are some options in ANSYS that convert it to surface when open the STEP file.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hi Kevin,

I have a similar problem when I import the model from Inventor Professional 2018 to Ansys 17.2.

I have 449 parts, 449 bodies.

Can you help me?

Thank you!

---

@KevinLi-Autodesk wrote:

If geometry in the model is a solid and have no geometry errors, Inventor should export it to be "solid" via STEP/IGES.

What's your Inventor version ? May you send the model to me via Hongyuan.Li@autodesk.com for further investigation ? You can also check if there are some options in ANSYS that convert it to surface when open the STEP file.

Regards,

---

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Do you mind elaborating the issue better? Are you getting bad bodies in ANSYS? Or, are you hoping to get one solid instead of many? Could you start a new thread and share the files here? There should be a logical reason behind the behavior.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi!

In Inventor I made separate structural elements and after that I assembly them into one whole. A good model was created in Inventor. On this model, in Ansys, I have to do a Static Analysis.

The problem appears when I convert the construction from Inventor to Ansys.

Convert is achieved:

(In Inventor) File>Export>CAD Format STEP

(In Ansys) Geometry>Replace Geometry>Browse STEP File

In this way I did not get a good geometry in Ansys. My construction should only consist of 89 solid bodies where I need to set up connections.

In Ansys appear 229 solid bodies and 220 surface bodies. Surface Bodies are counted as place of welds and even a surface body is considered to be one a complete solid body from Inventor. I do not understand why this body Ansys counts as surfaces.

In Attachment I send photos:

• Model in Inventor
• Model in Ansys
• Surface Bodies in Ansys

Thanks for help!

kelly.young has embedded your images for clarity.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have to solve this problem as soon as possible because it is a project that is of great importance. Do you have any solution?

Thank you in advance for the information!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! The information you provided so far is not actionable. Translation issues can go both way. It is possible Inventor writes out bad geometry in STEP file. It is also entirely possible that ANSYS misinterprets good geometry from Inventor. You can do a quick test. Close all the files in Inventor and import the same STEP file back to Inventor. Do you see good geometry? If yes, the issue is likely in ANSYS. Have you tried other neutral file format like SAT?

Many thanks!