Importing parts designed in SolidWorks and conversion to sheet metal

[Anonymous]

I am new to the Inventor program as all the other companies I have worked for have used SolidWorks and I am certified and proficient in that particular cad software. I have drawn quite a few parts for my new company using my personal computer and my Solidworks program in the interest of speed and knowing that program. Now that I am finished with the parts, I have opened them in Inventor to set up the files for the other team members to be able to use. I have saved all the parts in the part number system they have given me and replaced all the imported parts with the Inventor files. My issue is that some of the parts came in great with the conversion to sheet metal, giving me a parts tree in inventor and allowing me to "unfold" the parts to make my drawings and dxf off of. While some of the parts will show the conversion to sheet metal giving the parts tree the correct designation of folded part, but the part will not actually unfold. I have had some of the long time users from the company in my office trying to figure out why this is happening on just a few of the parts to no avail. I am hoping I can get some direction here. Thanks in advance. 

[mcgyvr]

@Anonymous  Post a part that fails to unfold..

[Anonymous]

Done

[JDMather]

Set the Sheet Metal Styles Thickness to match the part = 0.18".

Also, I checked some of the dimensions - and the part does not appear to have been modeled correctly in SolidWorks.

Can you Attach the original *.sldprt file here?

Edit:  The more dimensions I check - the more convinced I am that the part was not modeled correctly.

[Anonymous]

Ok, I see where the difference is. So why did inventor pull the default thickness rule as .120" instead of linking the material thickness?

[JDMather]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

... So why did inventor pull the default...

---

[Anonymous]

I sat down with one of the other guys here and found out that the inventor default settings are set to .120" thickness for sheet metal. This is what threw me off with all the other parts of the assembly, those parts where designed in .120" material to begin with so inventor had no issue with the sheet metal defaults.

This is a difference between SolidWorks and Inventor as when designing a sheet metal part in SolidWorks you designate the thickness of the base flange at the beginning of the parts tree and do not have to adjust the default thickness. This sets the other parameters for the k-factor and such. 

I really appreciate the help as I would have not likely found this out. 

[JDMather]

I strongly recommend that you Attach your *.sldprt file here so that we can determine what is going wrong there.

[NachoShaw]

Hey

Im primarily an Inventor user but as needs must and work was scarce, i had to do 2 years on Solidworks while contracting. the worst 2 years imo. Solidworks sheet metal is terrible. first, the panel thicknesses are driven by Excel and not always does the information translate across platforms. also, the way that SW creates the sheet metal commonly gave us crap geometry especially around the flanges. Im not 100% but i would say that most likely the reason for you problem is the inclusion of a SW part in general.

We wont import or reference native SW files, we ask for step and then set up the rules ourselves as we know it will be right

HTH

[Anonymous]

To each their own when it comes to the cad software that you prefer. I prefer solidworks and have never had any issues using it for sheet metal parts. I have been using this software for 5 years now without a single issue. I so far am not a fan of inventor just in the few days that I have been playing around on it. I found out the issue as I stated above after seeing one of the guys here post what the actual issue was in Inventor. It wasn't a solidworks import issue either. It was a default setting that so far I have yet to find why it is set to a .120"material when Inventor pulled it in as the proper thickness. This seems counter productive to have to go in and bypass this default in the sheet metal default tab. Step for step, I can create the same sheet metal part in solidworks in far less steps/clicks required in inventor. But I thank you for your input on which software you prefer instead of answering the initial question. As far as importing, I did so as a step file and tried to convert to sheet metal using the tab, as well as brining in an actual native solidworks part file. The direct solidworks file opened faster and right off the bat was easier to work with. I brought in a whole assembly in both step, parasolid, iges, etc. Kicker for you, I work primarily in the automotive field and all the files I bring in from auto manufacturers is in solid works. I can set solidworks to download an parasolid frame and body from Sema cad a full 5 mins after I have inventor start opening the file. 30 mins later and inventor is still opening where as I am full on working in solidworks with that filefile designing my parts. So again I thank you for your input and when I run into issues that I cannot find the answer to for inventor, I will return. 

[Anonymous]

I do not need to attach the solidworks file as you already answered my question in your very first reply. I have already made all my printsprints thanks to your pointing out the initial sheet metal default to me. Again I appreciate your previous answeranswer. It got me on the correct track that answered the question that I posed. 

[JDMather]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I do not need to attach the solidworks file ..... 

---

I have been a Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional for more than 15 years.

I teach a SOLIDWORKS sheet metal class.

I would think that you would be intensely interested in what you did wrong.

Once you understand what you did wrong in SWx I can show you how to use both SWx and Inventor correctly.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for your comments! You are lumping a few issues together here. Regarding the sheet metal import issue, I am not aware of the ability to import the thickness and update the sheet metal rule automatically. You can use iLogic to do that but out of box, there is no workflow. The convert to sheet metal workflow helps you quickly assign the thickness value based on body thickness. This is available to all converted sheet metal part, not just SWX import. Indeed, it would be nicer if the thickness is changed in the active sheet metal rule.

Regarding import taking a long time, please share an example with me directly ([email protected]). I would like to understand the behavior better. Inventor import process is multi-core/multi-threaded. It should be very fast. Something is not working right here.

No doubt, SWX is a good package. It is the most popular 3D tool on earth right now. But, Inventor is very good too. If you are interested in promoting SWX, you are in the wrong place. We like to focus on making Inventor better here.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I was in no means promoting SolidWorks here. I posted my question, it got answered. I am working in BOTH software's at this time. I never said Inventor was sub-par or useless. It has its place. I merely answered a reply that was knocking the use of SolidWorks. I got my answer and have moved on. I appreciate all the relative reply's to the original question. The few reply's that were not answering the original question were not needed. The world that I work in, SolidWorks is the leader. The new company I work for uses Inventor, but is looking to expand into SolidWorks because suppliers are using that particular software. I work in SolidWorks and if I can be the go to between the two programs and make the conversions easier for the team here to work with, then we are better off and the rest of the team can continue in Inventor. Otherwise, you can see where the suppliers are pushing us into SolidWorks because they are not swapping to Inventor when all their suppliers and so on are using SolidWorks. It is a slippery slope that snowball's fast. The turn around time to recreate their drawings/parts into Inventor so that we can work on them has to be fast, otherwise we lose their business. Also, we have to send back a file based in SolidWorks to them. So inter-office compatibility is a must in this instance. I am the SolidWorks tech that is bridging this gap. I will only be posting questions that the other engineers here cannot answer because they have not ever thought this was going to be an issue until now. Once I learn the in's and out's of Inventor, I can teach them the cross over.