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Trouble Converting Iges to Solid Body Via Surfaces


jossdude

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Hello, been reading around on the forum for a while but this is first post.

 

I am currently having a bit of trouble on Inventor (I usually use Solidworks but my new job does not have the programme)

 

I have been sent an Iges file that I want as a solid body, when the file is opened it is going me a combined feature that looks a lot like a surface but doesnt want to act like one.

 

I have managed to work out how to split the combined feature into the separate surfaces. This is where the problem is, there are 977 surfaces that don't all seem to want to stitch together perfectly, when all are selected.

 

Next to some of the surfaces in the browser there are green ticks, and next to others there are information "i" 's. I am assuming the ones without ticks need to be repaired, I have gone through and done this to the majority but as soon as I start to stitch the surfaces together the computer seems to be getting less happy and start to often freeze.

 

After I had one surface I wanted to use the split feature over a solid body to give a solid with the profile of the iges file sent to me.

 

Is there a general quicker way to achieve what I need to do.

 

Thankyou in advance, Joss

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Im not allow to attach the file I am afraid but here is a screen shot of the part that I am sure will only make the problem easier to see.

 

Picture.jpg

 

I think I might have got close to solving the problem now, I found a few rouge faces floating around that have deleted.

 

Also don't think it helps not having the most powerful of computers helps either.

 

Cheers for the reply

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Wow thats going to be a fun one to machine a form for:) Its a bit tedious but i would start by hiding most of the surfaces and working it that way(which it sounds like you are doing).

 

JD, does Inventor2011 have an imported surface auto-heal? I know in SW you can use import diagnostic and it will "try" to heal gaps in surfaces. May help locate problem areas.

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Hi Matt,

 

Yes 2011 has enhanced healing, but it is not always successful.

 

I had a similar problem importing IGES files from SolidWorks. Mine were also coming in as composits.

 

I found the cure was to output the IGES file from SolidWorks by first setting the "Export Options" when saving the IGES file and ticking the box against "IGES solid/surface entities" and selecting "Manifold Solid B-rep object (Type 186)" from the right-hand two option drop down menu.

 

That has worked everytime for me now.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards.

 

Dave

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That is definatly something I will use in the future but isnt an option for this application I am afriad.

 

I have been sent the iges file and it is several years old and the original company no longer exists so I just need to work with what I have.

 

Have manged to get it to work by stitching the surfaces, but everytime I come to stitch the last two the program stop responding and I need to CRTL+ALT+DEL to get any life back into anything.

 

Any ideas?

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One of them was the majority of the piece and the other had about 8 surfaces in it.

 

Have ended up managing to stitch them by deleating a face on the final stitched faces. Then stitched the semi complete and large stitched together to leave a hole. Then patched up the hole to get a full surface. (well fingers crossed, waiting for the computer to think about doing it now)

 

Thanks everyone

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JD, does Inventor2011 have an imported surface auto-heal? I know in SW you can use import diagnostic and it will "try" to heal gaps in surfaces. May help locate problem areas.

 

As indicated it has an autoheal and also a number of tools to manually repair surfaces. The manual tools are in something called the "Construction Environment" in Inventor that few people are aware even exists.

The link I posted earlier was to 3 releases ago and there have been improvements since then.

Back when I wrote that paper I found that on some parts SWx would do better on autoheal, but if it didn't work it was much more difficult to repair in SWx (remember this was 3 releases ago). I worked with one of my best SWx students to try to reproduce the paper using SWx, but we could never get everything fixed in SWx. Things have changed since, several of the problems in that paper are now pretty automatic in Inventor. I haven't had time to try again in SWx (2010).

 

Working with (flawed) 3rd party data with Inventor or SWx (no special purpose-built software) is my current passion. I have put a lot of effort in figuring out how to repair flawed IGES, STEP.... Of course if it comes in clean - no challenge, no problem. But a lot of the stuff on manufacturers websites is seriously flawed if you need solids.

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The manual tools are in something called the "Construction Environment" in Inventor that few people are aware even exists.
I believe it's part of the mould browser, isn't it? I have not investigated it as I did not think I had any particular use for it. I may have to reconsider that.

 

Do tell us more?

 

Dave

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