Quick question about iges, dxf, dwg files.

[Jeff2005]

I am converting files from the mc9 to a dwg or dxf file. When the person gets this information it is jumbled up, for instance a drafting entity will be out of sort of notes will not be readable ect... Does anyone have an idea why this is happening is it something I am doing when I convert the file or what, please someone help me on this.

 

Thanks as always in advanced.

Jeff

[Thad]

Jeff,

 

I'm guessing it's a translation issue. We used to get files from Cadkey and the dimenions/notes were always shifted out of location from the leaders. There were other weird issues as well.

 

Thad

[BEYoungJr]

Jeff,

As Thad said, conversion has NEVER been a strong suit for Mastercam. I have tried simple 2d drawings in the past that looked Grrrrreat in Mastercam but looked like crud when converted and openned in Autocad.

Good luck.

Blaine

[Greg Williams]

Can you use IGES for your drawings?

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Blaine,

I'm hurt...our goal (mine especially since I'm the developer) is to make file conversion a "strong suit" in Mastercam.

Have you sent any instances of this to us? If not, could you? I could probably generate something on my own, but it'd help to try to pinpoint the problem using real data. Just send the MC9 or MCX files to [email protected] and I'll see what we get.

[LaszloK]

Jeff, 2d entities often do not translate well between systems. I turn dimensions, notes, etc into 3D lines (in mc9; modify-break-draft/line).

[jimspac]

Jeff, what software are you trying to convert for. I routinely draw in Mastercam 9 and export to Cadkey 19. The worst I see is font damage(minor) in Cadkey.

[Jeff2005]

Yes minor for me. When I am giving it to someone to make they can't figure out what I want.

[Jim at Gentex]

Jeff,

We had many issues like this in V8 and V9 in the past b/c my employer has several different software packages used for design, but only Mastercam for machining. Our problems were similar when reading files into MC from other packages. Most of the problems disappeared when I requested .step files from everyone who needed to send files to me for machining. The .step format seems to me to deliver the best conversion between software packages with the fewest problems. I could be mistaken, but this is what has worked for me.

[RandyN]

Pete,

 

Don't worry, I talk up the Mastercam translators all the time. We have multiple systems here, and when things fail in any other system, I usually save the day with Mastercam. Granted, some of the translators are 3rd party, like Catia and UG, but we are very happy with Mastercam as our main source for translations.

 

P.S. You know what they say, crap in, crap out, and most of the problems I see are crappy data from customers, Ideas files being the worst when sent as iges.

[Jeff2005]

One more question, when saving as a dxf I am getting dwg files not dxf am I doing something wrong or what.

 

 

Thanks for all your replies.

[Philcott]

Jeff2005,

 

Once you click file,converters,autodesk,write file, you need to click the down arrow for "save as type" , set it to .dxf or .drwg (which ever you want) then click save.

That should do it.

 

Phil

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

In MR1, the File/SaveAs dialog will have DWG and DXF separated on different lines in the "Files of Type" dropdown (due to popular demand)

[Cuda84]

RandyN

 

We have multiple systems here also. Ideas being one of them. When I export .IGS from IDEAS I use the autocad flavor. My .IGS files read into MC GREAT! Ask your customers to export their .IGS files with the autocad flavor. Or if possible, ask them to make you Parasolids. IDEAS comes with a Parasolid translator. (it's owned by the same company that ownes UG) Our worst system to get data from is PowerShape. I don't think it is in the translators, I think it's the way the system creats surfaces.

[Jeff2005]

I do select dxf in the pull down but when it writes it, it comes out as dwg. I am talking about version 9.1 sp2. I just haven't made the swith totally to X yet. I am not getting files from customers I am sending out drawings to have special punches made that we don't have the capability to do here at the plant.

 

Thanks again for the input.

[RandyN]

Thanks for the tip Cuda, I'll try that for sure!

[Fig sign]

When I used Mastercam v9 converters from dwg/dxf were great ,much better than Cimatron which we also used and many times I made convertions for them ,

Now how the second side convertor reconverts to his format your file may be a problem .

i found one useful tool- Intellicad (that days free ,

nowadays cheep from Cadopia (never use other flame ) Autocad clone ,it is great program works with dwg as native format and have many great features before Autocaad )

So when I had problems with other programs but Intellicad worked like charm I got to conclusion that convertorfrom the other program $ux .

But not Mastercam !

Get the autocad viewer or Intellicad demo and I bet dxf/dwg file will be OK with it .