SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [300]
FIGURE 23.9
Very small errors can cause special functionality in SolidWorks not to work, and repairing it is not always straightforward.
FIGURE 23.10
Some parts are simply beyond repair.
Note
If you get an error that says “There are no points that exist in this file” when importing an IGES file, it is probably because you have Scan To 3D selected in your add-ins list. IGES is one of the accepted file types for bringing in point cloud data, and Scan To 3D assumes you are trying to use the IGES for that. Scan To 3D is an add-in that comes with SolidWorks Premium, not with SolidWorks Standard, so it is beyond the scope of this book. To disable it, choose Tools⇒Add-ins and deselect the check mark in the box next to Scan To 3D.
If you get a part that is this bad, your first move should be to try to get better data from the source. If that isn't available, you are going to have an uphill battle trying to make this part work. Automatic healing with the Import Diagnosis isn't going to touch this part. Repair is going to be an exercise in manual surface modeling. If you don't have the patience for that, you could try solid modeling from the reference faces on the part. If you look closely at the interaction of some of the fillets, it is no surprise that the translation failed so badly. Many of the fillets are badly hacked together. In addition, if this is a casting, someone is going to need to apply draft to the part, and with all the fillets on it, this part is not going to lend itself to that very well.
Using direct converters
SolidWorks contains some direct converters that either extract the kernel data (Parasolid information) or read the actual feature data and rebuild feature-based parts. The direct converter for Pro/ENGINEER data is probably the most widely used. Figure 23.11 shows the dialog box for the Pro/ENGINEER to SolidWorks Converter.
FIGURE 23.11
Converting Pro/ENGINEER files to SolidWorks gives you some options.
If you use the Import geometry directly option, you just get the dumb solid. Pro/ENGINEER uses its own “kernel,” or underlying geometry engine, called Granite. SolidWorks shares its kernel with NX and Solid Edge (Parasolid). To read the geometry directly, SolidWorks has to read the Granite data stored inside the Pro/ENGINEER file and translate it to Parasolid geometry.
If you choose the Analyze Model Completely option, you get a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 23.12. In this case, the Pro/ENGINEER part had 42 features, and the SolidWorks converter can read them all. Here too, you are given the option to take the features or the body. It is not clear that the Body option is the same as the Import geometry directly option, but they both result in the import of the dumb solid.
You would want to click the Body option if the percentage of recognized features was low, or if you didn't really need the parametric features that much. Sometimes, even if it doesn't recognize all the features, you might still get all the sketches you need to re-create the part.
Note
When parts are re-created in this way, sketches are not made dependent on faces of the model; instead every sketch will lie on a reference plane. This is very similar to the skeleton approach discussed in Chapter 12.
If you choose the Features option, SolidWorks rebuilds each sketch and feature to build a history-based model. This is not usually what people mean when they talk about imported geometry. Many CAD neophytes assume that features just automatically transfer from one CAD system to another, but this is by far the exception rather than the norm.
Figure 23.12 shows the Pro/ENGINEER to SolidWorks Converter dialog box and the finished imported model.
FIGURE 23.12
A Pro/ENGINEER part can be translated