Subject:
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Re: Special tools used to build/design parts?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev
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Date:
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Fri, 22 Dec 2000 00:31:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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506 times
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In lugnet.cad.dev, Steve Bliss writes:
> In lugnet.cad.dev, Kyle D. Jackson wrote:
>
> > Here's my angle. I use Pro/ENGINEER regularly. I can model
> > any LEGO part you can throw at me, and make it "exact".
>
> That could be a problem. LDraw has a variety of standard dimensions, which
> are not the 'exact', realworld dimensions.
I remember hearing about that. But it's not a big deal, as what I
mean is that I can model the shapes to be accurate, in terms
of having the proper curves, blends, etc on some of the more
complicated parts. I can make it all fit to whatever size standard
the parts library needs, even if they are not the "real" dimensions.
> Is there any public documentation of the Pro/E format? Is there a more
> general format that Pro/E can output, that would make more sense to have a
> tool to convert to DAT?
There may be. The place to start would be at www.ptc.com. As
for other formats, the IGES and STEP formats I mentioned are two
that immediately come to mind. Getting a little more obscure
are things like .STL, .SLP, etc. There's quite a few. But in
my experience IGES and STEP (largely in that order) are the most
portable of the CAD formats, when transferring to other CAD
formats at least.
> > If anyone has already made a utitlity to get from IGES or STEP
> > to DAT, for example, then I can already start working on parts
> > in Pro/E.
>
> Got any doc on those file formats?
Well since IGES and STEP are so widely used, there is probably
a ton of info available on them. I don't know where specifically
but I would imagine a web search would turn up some leads. The
problem is I believe there are several "versions" of each of these
formats. And then depending on the CAD package creating the files,
there are many "flavours". Meaning not everyone's IGES and STEP
files will be the same. But, they should be close enough to
be able to make the relatively simple parts that are LEGO elements.
When things break down are when you try to transfer, say, and
assembly for an entire engine or something. Then they'll go nuts.
> It's a limitation of the DAT format. DAT only supports lines, triangles,
> and quads. All curved surfaces are simulated.
So the .DAT format is in itself a facetted format then? Okay,
that's the same as the .STL and .SLP formats. I've used the
latter to get files from Pro/ENGINEER into POV-Ray. Sounds like
there's a lot of similarities between the .DAT, .STL, and .SLP
files.
KDJ
_______________________________________
LUGNETer #203, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Special tools used to build/design parts?
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| (...) I'd especially like to hear from Franklin "Mr. Prolific" Cain. Are you using some tool unknown to the rest of us, Franklin? (...) There's LDraw Add-On, which includes a text editor with some LDraw-related editing tools. And LDScript (with (...) (24 years ago, 20-Dec-00, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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