Surface Education please?

[kkominiarek]

These are surfaces I received from my customer (generated from catia) providing me with igs files.

468 trimmed surfaces

2 surfaces

 

I spent an hour going thru past topics/discussions etc... on this forum.

 

I want to have all my surface normals to point in same direction, I tried all suggestions

including "set cplane to match cview"....nothing worked.... any other suggestions?

 

Is this true? (i'll say not) (i read this today)...surface normals only matter if your using flowline tool path.

 

When I use "check model"....What does this do/mean? self int tol (.005 def) I set to .0005

Then it finds bad surfaces and changes their color. Does this mean surfaces are bad? Do I have to recreate?

 

Are small surfs necessarily bad surfs?

 

How can I best use Analyze Surfaces and sub-menus to benefit me the most?

 

Am I missing any updates? (see below)

My last update was 11-04 transalators.zip

 

I have 5 more similar parts after this one with more jobs from same customer being quoted. I would

like to become as efficient as possible using these large surface models.

 

 

Thank you all in advance.

[P_Scott]

kkominiarek,

 

I have two different ideas on this one. First, have you tried the Modify-Normal-Set menu yet? This is supposed to set all the surface normals to the same side of the surfaces. Surface normals are important for other things than just Flowline. If I had my way however, Flowline wouldn't even be a toolpath selection anymore because Finish-Project-Blend accomplishes the same thing without worrying about the "flow" direction of multiple surfaces.

 

My second thought is this. If you're going to be receiving more of these types of files "(generated from catia)", you may want to consider either the Mcam Catia translator, or the Moldplus add-on Catia translator. Moldplus Catia translator seems to work better with some problem cases but will only translate Catia V4 files. The Mcam Catia translator will allow for either Catia V4 or Catia V5 files.

 

I would prefer to convert files directly from the source, instead of relying on the "middle-man" IGES files. IGES is OK for most surface files but is just not as accurate, hence the "errors", as a file directly from the CAD source. HTH

[Charles Davis]

1. Surface normals only matter for flowline, but if you want to set them all, you can use Modify, Normals, Set to set them the same direction as the active Cplane.

2. Small surfaces aren't bad.

3. You'd be a lot better off getting the data in either Catia or STEP than IGES.

[kkominiarek]

I've tried modify-normal-set....did not work

 

I think I'll have to check into the Catia translator.

[Müřlıń®]

Proe must have the best IGES translators because I have used PTC's IGES for 20 years and have very few problems with garbled or untrimmed surfaces..(as long as the model was done in Proe)

 

Now I get files from Catia, UG, Solidworksw, Solidedge and a couple of others. We have errors in the surfaces all the time.

 

Wonder what makes PTC's translator so reliable for me

[Anbu Lingappan - Moldplus SA]

Hi

 

Moldplus SA does offer a CATIA V5 Read in addition to the CATIA V4 Read/Write translator.

 

Please check with your reseller for pricing, etc.

 

Regards

 

Anbu

[P_Scott]

Anbu,

 

My apologies if I have offended you or anyone else at Moldplus. I wasn't aware of the Cat V5 Read translator. Thank you for the information. Keep up the good work.

 

Murlin,

 

quote:

---

Now I get files from Catia, UG, Solidworksw, Solidedge and a couple of others. We have errors in the surfaces all the time.

---

If you're bringing in SolidWorks and SolidEdge files, why aren't you using the Parasolid converter instead of IGES? You don't need to bring in the part as a solid but you will still have much less errors because you're skipping the "middle man" IGES conversion. UG can also export a plain Parasolid (.X_T) file which would be much cleaner and less error prone than IGES. HTH

[adamp]

CHECK IF ALL YOUR SURFACES ARE THE SAME...

PARAMETRIC OR NURBS ?

[kkominiarek]

there all revolved and/or nurbs

[Roger Peterson]

So from the main menu - modify - normal - set - all - surfaces - done. This doesn't move any normals? It will say at the bottom of the screen how many have been moved, and the movement will be in relation to the current cplane.

 

 

HTH

[kkominiarek]

bottom screen stated reversed 291 surfaces, this reversed some surfs, but all surfs are not in same direction relative to cplane......i still have to analyze dynamic then analyze reverse normal....a major PITA.

 

If surfaces are not shaded you can see which are reversed....if they are shaded you cannot, this seems like a function that needs to addressed!

[Müřlıń®]

quote:

---

If you're bringing in SolidWorks and SolidEdge files, why aren't you using the Parasolid converter instead of IGES

---

We will usually ask for X_T or STEP if we get the job.

 

Alot of times we will get IGES files from our customers because that is the format they got from their source and they just passed it on to us.

 

I was just pointing out that IGES from other translators are a problem, but from PROE is not....

[kkominiarek]

what i did to solve my problem was import my customer/catia/igs file into SW, then save file as a parasolid/.x_t, then i import into mcam as a solid....create surfs from solid....and all is well.

 

thanks for all responses....

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

Why do you need to reverse them? I guess I'm missing something. I only use it when Filletting.

 

Mike Mattera

[kkominiarek]

offsetting surfaces or programming overburn