Pro-E Help, Solidworks is Out

[Tyler Robertson]

THANK YOU

[Müřlıń®]

Nutin wrong with using Pro-E once ya get past the learning curve...and believe me, it is as large as the Grand Canyon.

 

But....once you bridge the gap...Pro-E is so freaking fast for E/O changes on the geometry.....

 

Imports is not a problem if you know how to set it up just like watcher says....

 

Pro-E/Mastercam is the ultimate....because of one reason.... parametric surfaces

[Redfire427]

Watcher,

 

That is some good info you posted. I checked with our engineers and they assured me they only use absolute accuracy.

 

Here is a couple of screen shots to show just a few of the issues we encounter on importing files from ProE.

 

Keep in mind, we are using the ProE translator but the same holds true using a step file. If you look at the settings on the import page, you will notice that only the solid model is selected, however, once the file is imported, the file consists of geometry, surfaces, solid,etc. The other issue is that the level manager gets filled up with named levels that were not created by the engineers. This is done in the background of ProE, but yet, it gets imported into the Mastercam file. Although this particular file only shows 5 active levels, it is usually upwards of 50 different levels all labeled with obscure level names.

 

If not mentioned earlier, we are using the latest versions of ProE and Mastercam and this has been an issue since we started using ProE 4 years ago.

 

If other ProE users are not experiencing these issues, please tell me whay tou are doing any differently.

 

 

 

[Redfire427]

Hey,

 

What happened to all those ProE trumpet blowers?

 

Give me some feedback here.

[peon]

I was a UG user for about a year. I pulled trodes and created simple fixtures. I programmed all my parts in Mastercam using a parasolid exported from UG. I relocated to a different mold shop whom designs in Pro/e, therefore, my experience is limited. But, I did learn how to pull trodes in Pro/e. All I can really say is that I seemed to have many more modeling tools in UG than Pro/e at my disoposal. Pro/e is VERY cumbersome and a bitch to learn. UG seemed to have an icon for everything and the modeling also seemed to work. In Pro/e, I get alot of failures, particularly when removing faces. I also seem to do much more mouse clicking with Pro/e than UG. My lead designer is an expert Pro/e user and knows every trick NOT written in the book and I feel he would be impressed by UG's capabilities.

 

I HATE Pro/e and wish UG was an option at this facility. I have also talked to several mold designers whom used Pro/e for years and had to make the switch to UG and they are also impressed and would never go back to Pro/e.

 

Watcher's advise about the accuracy settings is dead on! Excellent advise Watcher!! I rarely have a problem importing a solid into Mastercam that had been stepped out of Pro/e. I HAVE had problems with parasolids with Pro/e.

 

I'm just adding my honest .02 cents from my limited experience.

[pronc]

While you are in the "export" dialog box make sure solid is selected. Click on Customize layers. This will bring up "Choose Layers" dialog box. Under "export status" you should see "ignore" for every layers. Change that to "skip" for any layers you don't want to bring in when converting. This works for me all the time.

[Redfire427]

What export dialog box are you referring to? Are you referring to a ProE function?

[SydwazShawn]

I hope someone can give some solid info on translating correctly from Pro/e. I have been fighting this for a long time with no resolve!

 

One of the companies that we do work for uses Pro/e, and I have tried so many different ways to get solids to import correctly with no luck.

 

I will definitely be following this thread…

[gcode]

Open is SolidWorks.. then run Import Diagnostics

That usually does a pretty good job.

[Redfire427]

The above is a sure-fire way to fix it. Solidworks can usually fix up all of ProE's mistakes/problems and then it is a straightforward import into Mastercam. As I have stated earlier, streamline the process by just eliminating ProE from the picture all together.

 

The crazy thing is, the ProE translator for Mastercam is written by PTC and it still doesn't work. Go figure.

[Watcher]

quote:

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ProE translator for Mastercam is written by PTC

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It does? I'm sure that PTC license the granite libraries... but I think that the translator is written and supported by CNC... How could PTC know how to translate Granite format to Mastercam format?Pete... could you chime in?

 

Granite is the Pro/E CAD kernel. An analogy to Parasolid kernel, as you probably already know. Granite libraries allow a software to read a Pro/E part just like Pro/E does... but if you write a translator to open Pro files using the Granite libraries you still have to convert and manipulate Granite instructions and topology to the equivalents in your CAD system.

 

If you have a problem in doing that, or if you software does not support or have equivalent topology or instructions at its side.. then it's likely you are going to have troubles... You mentioned you are using Pro/E translator... so you are reading native Pro/E files right? Well, Pro/E does not right bad code on its own format... so it is likely you have a problem with your converter... Have you tried to output STEP files in Pro/E using the settings above plus the layer tip mentioned in the last posts and right below? If you get good geometry would be interesting to investigate further the capabilities of your Pro/E reader...

 

Just my hard earned two cents... I cannot help too much with Mastercam issues since I'm been using Pro/E for the past 5 years...

 

quote:

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What export dialog box are you referring to? Are you referring to a ProE function?

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Yes Prosin... this is can be done at Pro/E export dialog.. but if you are opening the files directly in the Pro/E format (Since you have the optional translator) you will not see this... try to export a STEP format and you are going to see these options.

 

[ 02-27-2010, 07:43 AM: Message edited by: Watcher ]

[Mr. Wizzard]

Thanks for all the replies/advice guys. This definitely gives me some information to pass along and try out!

[Watcher]

Prosin,

 

You mentioned you are doing mold working with Pro/E right... I should have know better you were using at least absolute accuracy setting because Pro/Mold demands that too... for those that don't know, Pro/E needs to have absolute accuracy set in all assemblies and parts models and all them must be set to the same value and units when working in mold and nc modules, this is important to perform trim and cut-out operations, material removal in nc module, toolpath calculation, within a few... well, let's back to the point...

 

Prosin, you can have absolute accuracy in all parts, but are your models using the same accuracy value and units you set in your mastercam config? I mean, if you configured mastercam accuracy to be 0.001mm, then your Pro/E models must have absolute accuracy and units set to the same precision and units you got in MC... did you check this? There is a Pro/E config option named default_absolute_accuracy to allow you to set the default value for new models... these values need to be set on your assembly and part templates too!

 

Keep in mind that smaller values for absolute accuracy will greatly increase the model sizes and regeneration times.... thats why relative accuracy is the default in Pro/E...

 

HTH... I'm not a Mastercamer anymore but still learning on this place... sorry for not being able to help you more on this issue...