Maya to SolidWorks

Maya is mesh data. Think STL. Terrible to work with in SW. The best way to do it in SW is Scan23D. RapidWorks is a better tool. It's manual surface modeling, bud.

Hey Hershey Kiss Head, what do YOU think is a solution to this question???? I'm sending what what I would do, I'll post it here AFTER you answer.

=2E..and you don't have to answer in the form of a question Alex.

Come on DemoBoy....give it a try.....can't hurt THAT much could it?

CC

Well????

As expected and pointed out many times Jon.....nothing to contribute. Are you afraid of being wrong????

Couldn't find a 'cut and paste' answer....could you.

Plenty to say when putting someone down.

I was wondering......when you use the McDonald's drive thru....can you make a decision? Or, do you wait and order what the car in front orders, then criticize their choice?

CC

Not sure,.. I can only suggest doing a search... there are some Maya forums out there which maybe helpful in suggesting a model setup (such as scale or removing erroneous data or saving only what is needed to another file before exporting) for optimum IGES export?

As you say, they should be able to export a IGES file,... have you imported it yet,...have you tried importing it into so other modeler, such as, Rhino?

For those of you Maya users,.. it's a system setting via the plug-in manager (mel),.. include the Iges.mll. And, as Seth says,.. don't expect great quality, Maya is known to have import/export issues ((such as gaps, erroneous surfaces, stray surfaces,..most likely tolerance or trim surface related).

If you want to send me the IGES file, I can try to open it in a few other programs or try to clean it up?

Good luck..

WOW!!! Haven't been able to check the group for a few days, and all h_ll breaks loose....

I decided not to take on the job after all. After giving it a lot of though, I decided it would be stretching my capabilities a little too much, given the time frame it needed to be done in. I'm not a very proficient surface modeler to begin with. Swoopy's would have just made it worse. With a little more time, I might have taken the job, lost my tail on $/hr., but come away with a lot of valuable knowledge...

But back to the original problem, I did get the Maya designer to send me both an iges and a STL file. The iges failed completely. The STL did import, but there was a combination of surfaces and solids. Also, it was created from polygons which made it pretty useless, to me anyway....

I think I need to take a surfacing class. I am VERY proficient in SW with solid modeling. But have never really done much surface modeling. It would be a good tool to know....

Seth

I think I need to take a surfacing class. I am VERY proficient in SW with solid modeling. But have never really done much surface modeling. It would be a good tool to know....

Try Ed Eaton's tutorials at

You might want to start with Surfacing for Blockheads, then work your way through the Curvy Stuff by the numbers.

Jerry Steiger

I forgot to add that after the tutorials it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy Matt Lombard's Surfacing book, due out any day now.

Jerry Steiger

Thanks for the advise Jerry... I'll look into this...

Seth

I've done a fair amount of remodelling of Vellum and Alias imported models. There's no quick fix. Typically, ID software knits surfaces with looser tolerances than CAD software. I've seen edges from intersecting faces "scabbed" in by Vellum with over .15" deviation from what UG or SW would make due to looser tolerances.

I usually approach these projects by recreating key surfaces. Import the model and UNTRIM key surfaces and use these as templates to place sketch geometry. Once untrimmed, I find the majority of surfaces can be modelled as sweeps with guide curves. Partial ellipse as sweep section works better than spline in most cases and is very consistent with how these programs are actually creating surface.

Seth,

If you diligently work your way through all the tutorials and practice a bit, you probably won't need a class. If you take a class, depending on the skill of the instructor, you still might want to go through the tutorials. I think Matt's book will be good to have on hand no matter what you do.

Jerry Steiger