I have several large SW part files that are surface body files created by saving an assembly as a part. The largest is about 45MB and the direct Pro-E converter does not seem to like this file (have gotten several error messages, the latest telling me the prt file could not be saved). I tried a STEP conversion and it bombed out, I did get an IGES translation to work, but it dropped sevral large sufaces. Does anyone have a suggestion as to the best method to accomplish this conversion.
In the STEP translation I used the default surface/solid option.
Have you tried saving it as a direct Pro-E part file?
Yes, as tried to indicate in my original message, the software refuses to create the Pro-E file terminating with the message "Unable to save ***.prt".
Can you post this file for us to try?
It is 45MB.
My only suggestion at this point would be to try every option in saving the file
and try both Step saving options.
Or save out the individual parts and rebuild the assembly in Pro-E.
Does anyone have experience with the VDAFS translator?
Do you have the Solidworks Assembly file. If so save that one as a Pro E assembly file & it will save all of the part models as prt files as well. Not as efficient as far as file numbers go but should work better than trying to save the assembly part file.
Don't have access to the original SW assembly file.
Alec,
Is it feasible to convert the SW surface body or bodies into a solid? Pro-E may be able to handle it better.
Jerry Steiger
Not sure how that is done.
Alec,
In case you need it for future reference, you could use the Thicken command in the Surfaces tool bar (or Insert/Boss/Base/Thicken). If a surface body forms a closed surface, then it will allow you to turn it into a solid body. If it isn't closed, then it will allow you to make a solid body with some thickness. If you have multiple surfaces that you want to turn into a solid, you can Knit the surfaces together to form a closed surface, which you can then turn into a solid.
Jerry Steiger
One of the smaller models has 177 surface bodies, some of which I would not know the thickness to use. This task really was to expedite the translation of the SW model to a Pro-E model that can be used for documentation, which the Parasolid conversion seemed to accomplish. The Pro-E forum I lurk in also had threads that indicated the Parasolid translator seemed to work best on difficult model translations.
I did eventually get usable translations from the SW surface body models to Pro-E using the Parasolid (x_t) translator. Though not 100% accurate to the SW originals, they were usable to the customer. Very hard to get a good translation from the SW surface body.
Alec,
When you are saving out this file, what settings are set in the options
selection? Surfaces, wireframe and edges etc..?