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Is there a way around Solidworks and Mastercam


mike561h
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So the Engineering guys upgraded again to solidworks 2019.   I use Mastercam 2018. I do not want to update to 2019 right now because its kinda screws thing up.

setting etc...  A new part was put in agile so i grab it and NADA,

nothing shows up on the screen..   I had to have them send me a parasolid. Why make it so hard.  I assume  unless you match the current level of solidworks with Mastercam you cannot convert a sldprt.  what a mess... any ways around this

thanks.

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3 hours ago, mike561h said:

So the Engineering guys upgraded again to solidworks 2019.   I use Mastercam 2018. I do not want to update to 2019 right now because its kinda screws thing up.

setting etc...  A new part was put in agile so i grab it and NADA,

nothing shows up on the screen..   I had to have them send me a parasolid. Why make it so hard.  I assume  unless you match the current level of solidworks with Mastercam you cannot convert a sldprt.  what a mess... any ways around this

thanks.

Have you read my Stickied Thread about "Setting the Control Definition Defaults"?

If you do this, you can upgrade to a new version of Mastercam in about 5 minutes.

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12 hours ago, mike561h said:

A new part was put in agile so i grab it and NADA,

Can you be more descriptive than "NADA"? Do you get an error message? If so, what does it say? If no error message, just a blank screen with no entities? Is it a .SLDPRT or a .SLDASM file?

It may not be a version conflict.

12 hours ago, mike561h said:

I assume  unless you match the current level of solidworks with Mastercam you cannot convert a sldprt.

That's not true.

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12 hours ago, mike561h said:

I had to have them send me a parasolid. Why make it so hard.

Not sure that's more difficult or harder than sending a Solidworks file.

If you just use Parasolid as your file transfer protocol for everything then it is pretty much the end of the problem. Same with all the Engineering software. Saves you having to develop a gazillion work arounds and buying software readers.

Now there are exceptions. We get orders direct from Boeing.....so we have a Catia reader, but this is not necessary for non upper tier Boeing suppliers.

We send out parasolids to our outsource shops. Saves us and them problems regardless of the software they are running.

And do what Colin suggested as well, another problem off the list. never to rear its ugly head again.

 

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I don't think there is a document from Mastercam stating which versions of MC open which versions of SW

but it sure would be useful

I believe you would need MC2019 Update 3.1 to open native SW2019 files.

I have found that parasolids are much more error free than step files for use in importing and exporting

solid models between different CAD software.

Parasolids even support wireframe now. 

One thing to be aware of with parasolids is they also have version levels

If you export a parasolid from SW2019 at the highest level it supports, you will not be able to open in in MC2108

You have to set SW to export the highest level your version of MC supports,

I think I have it set to V28 these days. That will work in every CAD software I use

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Another nice thing about exporting parasolids from SolidWorks is that you can define a coordinate system

when you export the parasolid from SW and Mastercam will respect it when you import the parasolid into

Mastercam 

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49 minutes ago, Matthew Hajicek™ - Conventus said:

On top of that, when the part or assembly is saved a a dumb solid you have a record of what was sent; a Solidworks file can be changed after the fact and then you get he-said/she-said.

But......If there are questions about the part, I like to be able to see the native Solidworks file.  An example of this is the part I'm currently working on.  The PDF print has a call out of 6X 10-32 UNF - 2B THRU ALL, and there is another hole (7) on top of a boss that's the same size in the solid model, without any call out.

So, instead of looking at their Solidworks file, (If they used the hole wizard), we have to email them............

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3 minutes ago, Roger said:

But......If there are questions about the part, I like to be able to see the native Solidworks file.  An example of this is the part I'm currently working on.  The PDF print has a call out of 6X 10-32 UNF - 2B THRU ALL, and there is another hole (7) on top of a boss that's the same size in the solid model, without any call out.

So, instead of looking at their Solidworks file, (If they used the hole wizard), we have to email them............

I guess I'm a bit spoiled; I have Solidworks on my Mastercam computer, but I'm using X9, so I take the native SW part, save as X_B to bring it into Mastercam, and then I have the best of both worlds.

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13 minutes ago, Roger said:

So, instead of looking at their Solidworks file, (If they used the hole wizard), we have to email them............

Surely if there were ANY conflict you would be calling anyway right. So you have a print without a callout, I would be calling regardless of what the hole wizard says, if only to confirm that was their intention.

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2 hours ago, nickbe10 said:

Surely if there were ANY conflict you would be calling anyway right. So you have a print without a callout, I would be calling regardless of what the hole wizard says, if only to confirm that was their intention.

I'm not sure if I would question it, IF they used the hole wizard to do a taped hole.............

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8 hours ago, Matthew Hajicek™ - Conventus said:

On top of that, when the part or assembly is saved a a dumb solid you have a record of what was sent; a Solidworks file can be changed after the fact and then you get he-said/she-said.

Wouldn't simply forwarding their email (with the file attached) show them a record of what was sent?

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22 hours ago, gcode said:

Another nice thing about exporting parasolids from SolidWorks is that you can define a coordinate system

when you export the parasolid from SW and Mastercam will respect it when you import the parasolid into

Mastercam 

In this post and the previous one, GCode has pretty much summed up the truth about getting SolidWorks files into Mastercam. Well done.

I only want to add that using Mastercam for SolidWorks will eliminate some of that grief.

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On 5/23/2019 at 5:41 AM, nickbe10 said:

Not sure that's more difficult or harder than sending a Solidworks file.

If you just use Parasolid as your file transfer protocol for everything then it is pretty much the end of the problem. Same with all the Engineering software. Saves you having to develop a gazillion work arounds and buying software readers.

Now there are exceptions. We get orders direct from Boeing.....so we have a Catia reader, but this is not necessary for non upper tier Boeing suppliers.

We send out parasolids to our outsource shops. Saves us and them problems regardless of the software they are running.

And do what Colin suggested as well, another problem off the list. never to rear its ugly head again.

 

they only put SLD.PRTS on the agile network.   

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