Importing from SolidWorks

[Machrina]

When I import a SolidWorks part to Mastercam Mill 9, why is it that the order of configurations in MC does not follow the order of configurations in SW? Is there an easier way to import the desired configuration without resorting to trial and error?

[d0gFartz]

quote:

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the order of configurations

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Are you talking about the solids history creation in the solids manager?

[MACHINEMASTERG]

your solidworks designer is giving you different configs for the same part number ex.. family of part just three different configs for the same basic pc! yes you will have to convert by trial and error unless the designer tells you what config before you convert we do this here dont complane before v9 it did not even show the configs

[Machrina]

I should explain my situation a bit more. What I did was draw a part in SW, which I then want to machine as two parts which are welded together. The easiest way to split the part was to use two configurations, one the top of the part and one the bottom. In Mastercam, I went File>Converters>Parasld>Read File. When I opened the file, the configurations did not have the same name as in SW, in fact they were just randomly numbered (in no particular order). Judging from how things used to be, it sounds like trial and error isn't so bad.

[Anbu Lingappan - Moldplus SA]

Hi

 

Reading Solidworks file based on different configurations into Mastercam will only list the config names as numbers when you try to import the data.

 

There is no output format from Solidworks that allows external translators to read the config names. The only method is to read the configs based on the numbers.

 

When you try to read the file into Mastercam and you are provided with the choice to read a config (differnt numbers listed), read it and save it to a separate level or file. Then read the next config and save to a separate level or next file. This will allow you to read the 2 part files in the same MC9 file but different levels or to different levels.

 

Mastercam is working on a better import method for files with multiple configs, perhaps directly from SW (if it is found on the same system) to read the data using the Mastercam Direct utility from within SW that will give you the config name also.

 

We have also requested that SW provide the ability for us to read the config names from external translators. We are waiting for them to resolve that.

 

Till then, contact your reseller and ask them to check with CNC for solutions to this.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Good luck.

[lynnz]

The way I deal with configs in SW is while in Solidworks go to the configuration that I want in Mastercam,then save the file as a Parasolid with maybe a different name. Then convert it into Mastercam. You should get what you want to program.

 

Lynn

[Machrina]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll give them a try!

[Machrina]

I have another question regarding SWx and using the parasolid file converter. I often have 2 configurations of a part in SWx. When I use the MC file converter, it only seems to recognize the second configuration if I've recently switched between the 2 configs in SWx, and saved. Why is this?