Polygon Mesh DWG to Inventor

[TLRstacker]

Hi guys and girls,

 

i am on a clients site so i need to keep this brief for now, but if more info is required just le me know.

 

i have limited 3d experience so please bare with me.

 

basically i have downloaded a 3d DWG file from the allen bradley website of one of their controllogix chassis (switchboard internal bits) and it is all in polygon Meshes. as best i can tell these seem to be some kind of 3d polylines? as i have tried help google and searches but i cannot see anything that tells me how, if at all possible, i might be able to make this a solid so i can export it to use in inventor.

 

the cloest i found were these

 

1: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12863&highlight=Polygon+Mesh+DWG

 

2: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15548&highlight=Polygon+Mesh+DWG

 

is the lisp thing in there what i need to do this?

 

if so will it work with 2010? and is there somewhere i can find out about using lisp routines? like a lisp for dummies or something?

 

being that this is a work laptop i am using to is it at all possible to know if what i am about to do will kill it?

 

i have very little knowledge of this kind of thing. all of my work is either 2d cad or inventor. so i appologise for all the newbie questions.

 

can anyone help please?

 

thanks in advance.

[JD Mather]

http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=3056

[TLRstacker]

JD thanks for the link. i will be having a good look around that site over the coming long weekend i think. but it doesn't help me much at the moment as i am onsite and need to work this out asap and that video is 87mins long. :(i don't have an hour and a half to give myself a cad lesson at this time.

 

i downloaded that lisp file from the autodesk site and just dragged and dropped it into cad as it says to in other threads etc, but when i type m2s into the command prompt this is what i get.

 

Command: (LOAD "G:/M2S-2007.lsp") nil

Command: Specify opposite corner:

Command: m2s

Unknown command "M2S". Press F1 for help.

 

i did notice on the file that it said 2007 does this mean this doesn't work with 2010? or is the issue that it is saved to a flash drive not the c drive?

 

the shapes i am trying to convert are a tad more complex then just redoing them in inventor also so that unfortunately isn't an option.

 

like i say i'm new to this side of cad and am sorry for the newbie questions.

[TLRstacker]

ok so i downloaded a "newer" version that was ment to be better (but still 2007) and it atleast starts now, but after the first command prompt it cancels the m2s command and starts the area command.

 

Command: m2s

Select a polygon mesh to solidify:

Enter desired thickness of solid below lowest vertex :

Point or option keyword required.

; error: Function cancelled

Specify next point or [Arc/Length/Undo]: _endp of

Specify next point or [Arc/Length/Undo/Total] : _endp of

Specify next point or [Arc/Length/Undo/Total] :

Area = 1470.7941, Perimeter = 309.8464

[TLRstacker]

ok i have just spent another hour looking for an answer to this. here is one of the files i have been playing with but i have some others that are FAR more complex. i have also attached the lisp file that atleast starts to work with 2010. maybe i am just doing something wrong here as i am a total newbie to this stuff.

 

i hope someone can help me with this.

 

FYI incase anyone is interested, i had very limited success with opening this drawing in MDT and exporting as a iges file then opening that iges file in Inventor. but it is missing ALOT of faces. i read in the autodesk forums that it is very successful with some models.

JK-abcma170.zip

M2s2007.lsp

[TLRstacker]

:shock:ok some level of success!

 

basically

 

Step 1: i took the drawing into AutoCAD and exploded it. got rid of all things not line, circle, arc or 3d face related and saved.

 

Step 2: Opened drawing in MDT and exported it as an IGES file.

 

Step 3: Opened the IGES file in Inventor and i now have a whole lot of surfaces showing my model.

 

this is good enough for what i want to do with these files. however i would love to know a simpler way of getting this result if there is one.

 

thanks again JD for the link. will def start looking into this stuff as it is ALOT more interesting then straight up 2d cad and inventor!

[JD Mather]

There is no need to go through MDT. MDT is obsolete software that has not been sold by Autodesk since Feb. 2002. It was given away for free for several years to those making the transition to Inventor.

 

You can open (import) the file directly in Inventor - copy to the CE and run quality check and stitch to solids.

 

The procedure is a bit easier in Inventor 2010 and later than I showed in that video as you can now have multibody solids.

 

If there are missing surfaces there is no Easy Button - you will have to create them or contact the vendor site and tell them their models are garbage.

 

In the video I also explain how to get drawings without bothering to get the surfaces to solids.

[TLRstacker]

Create stitch failed

Modeling failure in ASM. Redefine inputs.

Part2.ipt: Errors occurred during update

Stitch Surface1: Could not build this Stitch Surface

Modeling failure in ASM. Redefine inputs.

[TLRstacker]

(please remember i have limited experience with this side of inventor/cad so i apologise in advance for the stupid questions, i'm trying to learn on the fly and under pressure)

 

first let me say JD i haven't had the time to sit down and watch your video yet. was alot busier on the weekend then i anticipated (thanks to the little lady) i will endevour to do that tonight if i can. so i have a couple of questions as my client is asking for a better result then what i currently have and i don't have much time left on site. the other issue i am having is when i have these parts pattened in a model and when i try showning them in a 2d layout it is making my poor little laptop work HARD and going VERY slow. (have to have a chat to the boss about that. )

 

so i have a couple of quick questions to see if i can achieve a better result while i'm here.if there is no easy answer or i REALLY need to sit and watch the vid i will tell my client that and just put up with the slow laptop for the rest of the afternoon.

 

OK, so i now have this model into inventor and it looks (to me) like it is all surfaces. from the very small play i have had with it i understand that to stich things they have to be adjacent and the exact same size.

 

just looking at the model i can see that this is not the case in a whole lot of places. so i thought i'd give stitching it a shot in a couple of places that it looked right and try fill in some missing faces. i am now having 2 problems,

 

firstly;

 

stitching,

when i try and select the faces to stitch it just highlights my whole model and won't let me select individual faces or edges. not sure why. does this mean they are already stitched despite them not touching? or because i have imported it from an iges file does that mean it sees it as one whole part and i can't do anything with this?

when i tried the select all i got the following error;

Create stitch failed

Modeling failure in ASM. Redefine inputs.

Part2.ipt: Errors occurred during update

Stitch Surface1: Could not build this Stitch Surface

Modeling failure in ASM. Redefine inputs.

 

(not suprising) so i am assuming this means i need to "fill in the blanks"?

 

so i tried to "fill in the blanks" (missing faces) and that brought me to my second issue,

 

patching;

i am assuming that this is the comand i need to use to make the missing surfaces?

so i have tried to patch the missing bits and it will let me select the edges, however when i select some edges close to face joins/changes it will go past where i want/need it to. and unless i am holding my tongue wrong it doesn't seem to want to let me "unselect" the bits i don't want to use. does this mean there is again an issue with the imported model? if it does let me select only the edges i want it seems to create some wierd face in the midle of nowhere and touching only one (if any) of the selected edges. what am i doing wrong? or is this again a model issue?

 

i have tried just thickening the faces that it would let me use but keep geting heaps of errors. specially when they intersect. it seems very hit and miss and does seem to take a long time to thinnk about it before telling me no. (atleast it's considering my stupid requests i guess )

 

again i apologise for the newbie questions and i do hope someone can/will help as i know how frustrating it can be to get newbie questions on forums. (i am a member of a couple of forums of other interests i am far more knowledgeable on ) and normally i would just work this stuff out for myself, but am restricted for time ATM.

 

Thanks in advance.

[kencaz]

:shock:ok some level of success!

 

basically

 

Step 1: i took the drawing into AutoCAD and exploded it. got rid of all things not line, circle, arc or 3d face related and saved.

 

Step 2: Opened drawing in MDT and exported it as an IGES file.

 

Step 3: Opened the IGES file in Inventor and i now have a whole lot of surfaces showing my model.

 

this is good enough for what i want to do with these files. however i would love to know a simpler way of getting this result if there is one.

 

thanks again JD for the link. will def start looking into this stuff as it is ALOT more interesting then straight up 2d cad and inventor!

 

If you go a little further in AutoCAD. Convert the 3d faces to surfaces then thicken into a solid you can then export as .sat and import into Inventor.

 

 

 

You can work with it as a solid, however, it's still only a single part. I have the 2009 .ipt but it's over 2mb so not able to post here.

 

KC

[TLRstacker]

well i'm at home and have everything done, so time to watch the tutorial and give it a go properly from start to finish.....

 

(but top gear is on so i might be a little distracted!

[TLRstacker]

:shock:ok i have had a play around with it for the last couple hours and i have total success! :shock:thanks heaps JD! that tutorial was exactly what i needed. i have learnt so much! just hope it sticks now!

[JD Mather]

I stitched it in Inventor CE and got many many parts, but not all. The model looked so simple that I would use Pattern or simply do a drawing for the dimensions and remodel the whole thing from scratch. Shouldn't take more than 30-minutes.