Error importing solidworks file

[Helmut]

Hi, ive been lurking here for a while and decided to create an account and get some of my questions answered.

 

My first problem is importing solidworks files. I'm using X5 and when I open a .sldprt I get an error saying

 

The feature named Combine1 could not be imported into Mastercam. It is a feature of type "CombineBodies". The history of the part up to and including that feature has been lost. The part up to that feature has been imported as a lump with no history and any features after that one are in the history tree.

 

The message seems to contradict itself so I'm not sure if I've got all the features on the part into Mastercam. Is this just a notification or is my part incomplete? I will end up going through the drawing and comparing it feature by feature to the model to see if it's there but that's going to take a long time.

 

Thanks!

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

It's important to note that the message states that the "history" has been lost...and henceforth the solid is turned into a 'lump' - or a 'non-history-based' solid - at that point. The part should still come in with the same geometry/topology, but there's nothing Mastercam can do about supporting 'history' that includes that feature type.

Mastercam does not have anything in its Solids Modeling functionality that corresponds to "CombineBodies" (likewise for "Rib", "Dome" and some other SW feature types), so we have no choice but to strip off all the history at that point.

If there are subsequent feature types that we can support, they will then be brought in and applied to the 'lump'.

[Helmut]

Aha! Thanks Pete.

 

The part up to that feature has been imported as a lump with no history and any features after that one are in the history tree.

 

Makes good sense. I'm not going to worry about integrity of the model, and I don't think I'll need the history try for anything so aside from another mouse click this should have no impact on doing my job.

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Glad to hear that my explanation helped.

If you don;t need the history at all (and most users don't) you can turn off that option in Config - it's off by default.

[Guest]

In cases like these where there is no support on a particular feature, I have saved the part out of SW's as a parasolid and imported that.....

 

If you don't need the feature tree that will work in getting you a complete model

[Helmut]

That's a good idea. Will probably make the import faster and cleaner. I'll give it a go and see how it work.

 

Thanks all for the help. What a great place!