Its been a while since I used SolidWorks so this may be a dumb question, but can the software create and edit(not just import) Bezier splines in addition to Nurbs?
This requirement is more for working with 2D graphic design rather than surfacing.
So if I am receiving 2D bezier based artwork from the likes of Corel or Illustrator, I take it then that I would need to export/import in DXF/DWG format and as Nurbs or Polygon splines??? Has anyone had any experience in this?
Howabout when creating a 2D technical illustration from a 3D part (in SW) and then touching this up in Illustrator. Can the SW 2D drawing views be exported as *.ai or *.eps (or only DXF)?
Last but not least, any ideas on how to import, vectorise and smooth a bitmap image with SW?
Lots of questions I know, but as you can see I have to deal with lots of graphic design / illustrations, and it seems the link between SW and graphic design packages is not so strong as I had hoped.
Isn't there any add on product for SW that will allow me to work with Beziers???????
I don't know if it's of any practical use to you (no firsthand knowledge of your type work) but Rhino has some support for Beziers and some degree of interoperability with AI. It can't vectorize, but there are a few freeware / shareware / cheap programs that will at least attempt it.
Corel subdevides curves into line segements when exoprted as DXF, don't know about Adobe. It would be nice if SW could import these types of curves directly.
DWG is also an option
Sw isn't intended to be an illustration tool. It "will" produce all of the
3D views in a variety of formats. These can then be used in any (more suitable) illustration program. This isn't a shortcoming of SW, just the right tool for the right job.
This can be done with any number of raster to vector programs, and imported.
it's not an illustration program, but the toos are there to work with one
Why would you want too ? They're not necessary for solid modeling or surfacing, and like I said, it's not an illustration program.
Baren-Boym may be able to write something that will allow you to read beziers in as nurbs.
Thanks for the reply. So why the need for Bezier curves??
We do a lot of different work from technical illustration through to jewellery design. This means that we work with anything from a pencil sketch (that needs vectorising and smoothing) through to a ready made solid. Sometimes with the likes of the jewellery design we create a solid model, but the original 2D design has to be completed using Bezier curves as they are so much more flexible than Nurbs.
Thus the reason of wanting a system that is as strong in 2D design as it is in 3D design.
Hoping to learn something here; could you elaborate / expand on that? Are you talking about actual shape creation (don't think so, but like I said I'm here to learn) or do you mean that there is better support in the software packages you use?
Sounds like your trying to use the wrong tool (Solidworks) for your particular needs then.
In SW, (and all of the other solid packages for that matter), 2D data is either a mathematically defined basis for a 3D shape (sketch) or a projected view of a 3D object (drawing). This is all that's needed for the engineering tasks the program was designed to perform. There is some 2D drawing capabilty, but it's intended to augment "detailing" of engineering drawings.
I don't know that a "single" program even exists that meets all your needs.
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