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Subject: 
I want to put .dat files into SolidWorks
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.cad
Date: 
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:52:05 GMT
Viewed: 
22814 times
  
Hi-

I seem to want to do something a little bit backwards relative to what most
people & most converters seem to be doing...  :)


I'm a die-hard SolidWorks user & wish to import LDraw .dat models into
SolidWorks.

I'm having some trouble. Here's what I've tried:

I downloaded LDraw & the entire part library.

I downloaded, purchased, & registered 3DWin from TB Software.

3DWin can convert .dat files to .igs or .stl, both of which can be read by
SolidWorks.

When I perform these file conversions, however, the files either won't load into
SolidWorks, load but with errors/warnings & come up empty, or import and have
just a few curves but no solids and the curves don't even look like the
completely correct part.

I know that I'm starting with good .dat files, because MLCad opens up the .dat
files just fine.


Does anybody have experience with this conversion? Or, is there already a
library of parts models that can be imported into SolidWorks?


Thank you very much,
-Jason


PS--Here's a little more detail on some of the trials & tribulations, if some of
you are familiar with the nitty gritty of this process.


1 - STL. After I have created an .STL file with 3DWin & I open the .STL file
with SolidWorks, the file opens & is empty--there is no geometry. Tested this
with 3001.dat & 3002.dat. When opening an .STL file generated from 1.dat, I get
some thin geometry, but no solids, & it's incomplete.

2 - IGS. After I have created an .IGS file with 3DWin & I open the .IGS file
with SolidWorks, I get one of the following errors:

a) "This file contains free curves/points which are not desired according to the
import options. Do you wish to import them anyway? Yes/No" After I select "Yes",
the file opens with a sort of a skeleton of imported curves, but no solid
geometry, & the part looks incomplete. (I get these results with file 1.dat).

b) "Unable to read IGS file. File was truncated or contains invalid data. OK". I
click "OK" & the box disappears & SolidWorks gives up on opening the file. (I
get these results with files 3001.dat & 3002.


During my troubleshooting, I have tried parts 1.dat, 3001.dat, & 3002.dat. All
of these open fine in MLCad, so I know that the source .DAT files are OK.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: I want to put .dat files into SolidWorks
 
Some further progress. It turns out that I was able to convert a .DAT file to .STL with LDView & import it into SolidWorks, but it further turned out that, once I'd imported an .STL file into SolidWorks, I couldn't do very much with it. I can't mate (...) (13 years ago, 25-Oct-11, to lugnet.cad)

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