solids

[charlie]

Are all solids compatabile with other solids,

for example a solid drawn in solid edge, would that be compatable with mastercam solids?

[cadcam]

What are conserding to be compatabile?

Can you bring in a solid Edge file right in to MC.

Yes sir you can.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

.... and to add to Jay's comment, they both share the same modeling kernel - Parasolid. Here's a partial list of Parasolid's CAD Customers;

 

ALTEA - SolidMAN

Alventive (formerly Visionary Design Systems) - IronCAD

Amada - SheetWorks

Andor - Solid Builder

Applied 3D Science - ParaLogix, ParaLogixOEM

Bentley Systems Inc. - MicroStation/J,

MicroStation Modeler

Bolc Electronics - CAMCORE Solid

CADKEY Corp. - CADKEY 99

CADMAX Corp. - True SolidMaster

Camtek - PEPS Solid Cut

DP Technology Corp. - Esprit 98

E-Ring.Com Inc. - Design Rule Checker

CAD/CAM Productivity tools

EDS - Solid Edge, Unigraphics Modeling

Fujitsu - ICAD/MX, ICAD/SX

Huazheng Software Institute - CAXA

Knowledge Technology International Ltd. - ICAD

MCS Inc. - Anvil Express

Missler Group / Topcad SA - TopCad

Parametric Technology Corp. - DesignWave, Pro/Desktop

SolidWorks Corp. - SolidWorks

T-FLEX Parametric - T-FLEX Parametric Pro

Vero International Software Srl. - VISI-CAD

 

and a Partial list of their CAM Customers;

ALTEA - SolidMAN CAM

Bolc Electronics - CAMCORE Solid

Andor - MAPLE-3AX

Camtek - PEPS Solid Cut

CNC Software Inc. - MasterCAM

DP Technology Corp. - Esprit 98

EDS - Unigraphics CAM

Engineering Geometry Systems Inc. - FeatureCAM

Geometric Software Services Co. Ltd. - Feature Recognition Toolkit

Gibbs & Associates - Virtual Gibbs

Makino Milling Machine - FF/CAM

MecSoft Corporation - VisualMill

Missler Group / Topcad SA - TopCam

Pathtrace Ltd - EdgeCAM Solid Machinist

Seiko Instruments Inc - Factory Mill

Surfware Inc. - SURFCAM

TekSoft - Factory Mill

Vero International Software Srl. - VISI-CAM

 

All of these packages should offer file exchange compatability.

[johns]

The two basic solid types are Parasolid (*.x_t)and Acis (*.sat). Mastercam can read both of these, importing as wireframe and surfaces. If you have the solids for MC, you can also write these two file types. However, there are numerous levels of these and they are not backwards compatible. If you have MC Ver 8, it will read up to Ver 11 of Parasolids unless you install the Ver 13 patch.

STEP is another solids type that I see becoming more popular. STEP was to become aa accepted replacement for other solids types when it was introduced, but there are at least three STEP release levels already that are available. Some systems can output solids to Iges as well, and if you have the MC Solids with the latest Iges translator, you can import them. I've only had one file so far in the past year and it worked well.

Just because it's a solid, it doesn't guarantee compatibility. You have to know the type and output level. I have found MC to be exellent in importing any file types given to me the past 12 years I have used it.

[charlie]

We would be working with solid edge ver 10

[cadcam]

MC takes solid edge file right in.]that is one of the choice under Parasolid is Solid Edge files.

[Mark H]

One note about Mastercam solids...

 

When importing *.X_T and *.SLDPRT files, the original History tree is NOT brought in. However, Mastercam V9 has a find features function that will find fillets and holes only, and then add them to the history tree. I havent tried the Solid edge files (*.PAR and *.PSM) so I dont know about them, but I bet its the same deal with the history tree.

 

[ 04-11-2002, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: Mark H ]

[ChrisD]

I've tried taking in native Solid Edge files (*.*.par) in 8.1.1 and it just comes up with the error "parasolid data not found" Am I missing something?

[cadcam]

can you shar this file so we can try it in V8& V9?

Temp FTP link

[ChrisD]

Believe me Jay I would like to post it on the site

but management would have a serious problem with it.

 

Don't ask......

 

but thanks anyway I guess I'll just have to work around it and get them to send me x_t file from now on.

 

Again thanks

[cadcam]

Sorry chris.

maybe you can send the file to CNC being mastercam them selfs.

I can't see the company have any trouble with that.

 

Have a good one.

[Glenn Bouman]

ChrisD

 

You need this patch to handle newer Parasolid files.

 

update

[ChrisD]

Glenn,

 

Thank you, it worked just great!

[cadcam]

thanks glenn. I thought nad I thought wrong that was in the patch for 8.1.1 update so I did not go there.

 

But vary happy that it worked for him.