by Brad Strong | Aug 23, 2016 | Blog, CAD Performance, CAD Repair, CAD Translation, What's New |
The IGES file has been the bane of the CAD/CAM/CAE world for years, yet it remains with us to this day. This article defines some of the problems with the IGES format. A follow-up article will propose some alternative formats which are better equipped to handle most 3D design data needs. IGES stands for Initial Graphics Exchange Specification; it was first published in 1980 as a vendor-neutral file format to facilitate the transfer of information among different CAD systems, and though use has dropped in the last decade, IGES is still a widely used format in the manufacturing world. In fact, the 2013 3D Collaboration and Interoperability Report published by...
by Brad Strong | Aug 16, 2016 | Blog, CAD Performance, CAD Translation, What's New
Taking the time to optimize and save your settings can make a huge difference in performance; they can determine how much work is necessary on a part or assembly, whether you are working in inches or millimeters, how fast files will open (based on whether you are running repair upon load or not), whether edges or vertices are included in the translation process, how hidden or suppressed geometry is dealt with, whether JT files will be considered as Visrep or Visrep + Brep, and much more. This article will discuss some of the most important of these settings, and demonstrate how you can save your TransMagic settings individually, as a department or as a...
by Brad Strong | Aug 11, 2016 | Blog, CAD Repair, CAD Translation, What's New |
Duplicate Surfaces are a Problem Certain processes can cause CAD models to have duplicate surfaces or faces. This can create problems when it comes time to translate, repair or otherwise use the model downstream; it’s hard to stitch two sets of surfaces into a watertight solid, and without a watertight solid, almost all downstream applications, from feature recognition to machining to analysis will suffer. How do you know if you are dealing with a duplicate surface? One giveaway is the ‘venetian blinds’ effect you can see in figure 1, which is a result of two nearly coincident surfaces vying with each other to be displayed. Another clue can...
by Brad Strong | Aug 2, 2016 | Blog, CAD Diagnostics, CAD Translation, Support, What's New
Last week’s article on missing CAD data discussed how to know what version of a CAD file you have, and how to know if your translation software is out of date. This week’s post will look at some further issues that can arise; entities such as points can be turned off, you may have saved to the wrong version for the destination software, you may need to import data, you may have lost faces during translation, and you may be dealing with a suppressed part. This is our final article on the subject for now – but knowing the insidious nature of missing data, we fully expect to have more to say on the subject in the near future! Check out...
by Brad Strong | Jul 28, 2016 | Blog, CAD Diagnostics, Support, What's New |
In Dude, Where’s My CAD Data Part 1 we looked at some of the more common causes for missing CAD data. These included empty assemblies, missing PMI, data that was turned off in the first place, data which is present but off the screen, and data that is present, yet hidden. Dude, Where’s My CAD Data Part 2 looks at what can happen if your CAD or Translation software is out of date and cannot open a newer format or version. The video immediately below summarizes this article. Unable to Open File The most extreme case of missing CAD data is when you can’t even open the file. File formats are being updated all the time; with...
by Brad Strong | Jul 19, 2016 | Blog, CAD Diagnostics, CAD Translation, What's New
It’s not that uncommon an experience that we open a CAD part or assembly file, only to find that part or all of the data appears to be missing. What could be the reason for it, and what can we do about it? This article, and the followup article next week, will attempt to cover some of the causes and solutions to missing CAD data. If you want to see a video that covers missing CAD data, click on the link below. Note that in TransMagic R12 there is now an automatic missing files alert that comes up if you load an assembly and TransMagic cannot find missing parts; this is in addition to the TransMagic log file which also contains missing part information....
