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Exporting from Solidworks and importing into Cam2 MeasureX for Faro

Question asked by Jena Bordwell on Jul 31, 2012
Latest reply on Aug 7, 2012 by Jerry Steiger

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I am not farmilar with Solidworks myself except I understand the consept as I have experience with CMM's. I am having the engineers exporting cad files for me and they are stumped on my issue. When I import the cad file into the Faro system and try to align our part with the cad file, it is only showing trimmed surfaces and not features like a circle or a line. It is only allowing me to pic out all planes, even inside a hole. We tried exporting it with a different setting and the only other option we received was a linear line and then all the same planes. Is there a special way of exporting the cad file to just show the items, single flat planes and the features aka: cirlcle, lines and points? I have already been in contact with Faro, gave them a copy of the cad file and they agree it has to be exported a certain way from SW to make it work properly on the Faro. Thank you.

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Anna Wood Aug 1, 2012 12:32 AM
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What File Types is your Faro software able to open or import?

Cheers,

Anna
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- Jena Bordwell @ Anna Wood on Aug 1, 2012 11:30 AM
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  Anna,
  
  We tried *.igs, *.igs using wire frame and *.vda. The vda and the wireframe gave me the linear lines along with the trimmed surfaces.
  
  In the Faro manual it states that files can be used from:
  
  IGES, VDA, CATIA, v4 &v5, Unigraphics, Parasolid, Solidworkss, Solid Edge & OpenNURBS formats.
  
  When I get into the Faro Software we have to take the cad file and translate them. The file extensions in the drop down that the software looks for has the options of:
  All Native CAD Files
  3DM files (*.3dm)
  VDA files (*.vda)
  IGES files (*.igs,*.iges)
  
  These cad files are files that we receive from our customers but we are able to make changes to them. I think the trimmed surfaces show up because the files are made for a CNC machine to trim parts. But if we are needing to confirm a dimension to the print in Solidworks ,we are able to selct the actual features in Solidworks. Thank you.
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  - Jerry Steiger @ Jena Bordwell on Aug 5, 2012 6:38 PM
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    Jena,
    
    I'm not sure I understand. Are you getting the files from the CAM people? Could the CAM people give you the files that they received from the SolidWorks peope? Is it possible for you to get files directly from the SolidWorks people?In the latter case, native SolidWorks or Parasolid should work best.
    
    Jerry Steiger
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  - Anna Wood @ Jena Bordwell on Aug 5, 2012 7:10 PM
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    As Jerry asks who are you getting exported files from? Your CAM people or original files from your customers?
    
    If not, get the original customer files from your CAM people.
    
    What CAM software are your people using?
    
    What is the name of the FARO software you are using? What version is it?
    
    What version of SolidWorks do you have?
    
    Can you post an example file of what you recieve to import into your sytem?
    
    Can you post a screen shot from your FARO software showing what you expect to see when imported into the FARO software?
    
    Cheers,
    
    Anna
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    - Jena Bordwell @ Anna Wood on Aug 6, 2012 4:24 PM
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      Anna,
      
      Here are my answers below:
      
      As Jerry asks who are you getting exported files from? Your CAM people or original files from your customers?
      A: My company receives the original files from our customers in different file formats .igs being one of them. We are using the original files. I personally received the files from my companies engineers.
      
      What CAM software are your people using?
      A: Faro Cam2 MeasureX, or you may be looking for the answer of Solidworks, native SolidWorks or Parasolid. We can use all this.
      
      What is the name of the FARO software you are using?
      A: Faro Cam2 MeasureX
      
      What version is it?
      A: 1.0.9.3
      
      What version of SolidWorks do you have?
      A: 2012
      
      Can you post an example file of what you recieve to import into your sytem?
      See below
      
      Can you post a screen shot from your FARO software showing what you expect to see when imported into the FARO software?
      See below
      
      I hope this is all making sense, Faro was not able to help me too much. I had given them the actual file so they can see what I was dealing with but their answers were what I had expected to hear. That it is the CAD model and the way it is being exported but they didn't have any information on how we can export the file to make it translate and be fuctional in the Faro software to use features instead of trimmed surfaces. Thank you!
      
      This is choosing a cad file to translate into the CAM2
      
      When trying to select a feature ( trying for circle, top or bottom surface) this is the trimmed surfaces I am receiving. You will see this is half of the circle and selecting the surface of the cylinder instead of the actual feature.
      Second example of a trimmed surface being the only option, but this one is on the surface plane.
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      - Anna Wood @ Jena Bordwell on Aug 7, 2012 4:48 PM
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        Yes, you will get split surfaces/faces when importing from some CAD systems. ProE and Catia come to mind.
        
        It is not a SolidWorks issue either. It is an artifact of how other CAD systems handle periodic faces. If you do a Save As to step file in SolidWorks and select the Options button you will see a toggle to Split Periodic Faces.
        
        Open up your IGES file in Windows Notepad and see what CAD system it was exported from. That info will be in the first few lines of text in the file.
        
        Are the faces split in SolidWorks after you do your import?
        
        Ask Faro how they handle other CAD system data. You will know what CAD program to ask about once you query your IGES file to see what the native CAD system the IGES file was saved from.
        
        I would ask the customer to send the native CAD file as well. Good chance you can use the native file with your FARO software. Which is most always better then using translated data.
        
        Cheers,
        
        Anna
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        Jerry Steiger @ Anna Wood on Aug 7, 2012 7:44 PM
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        Jena,
        
        The people exporting the files may have some control over what features are included in the files. If you export to IGES from SolidWorks, you have choices you can make under options. If you choose to export solid/surface entities, you can choose to export "Trimmed Surface (type 144)" or "Manifold Solid B-rep Object (type 186)". I suspect this type of choice could be why you are seeing what you are. You can also choose a "flavor" that is tuned to the best match to certain receiving software, such as "Standard", "Nurbs", or "MasterCam". (There are also a number of other choices that probably don't have any impact on the problems you are seeing.
        
        If they can export Parasolid it is liable to work better with SolidWorks than IGES.
        
        Jerry Steiger
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Exporting from Solidworks and importing into Cam2 MeasureX for Faro

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