SolidWorks and Bezier Curves

Alec.

Nope,,, Nurbs only.

The only CAD programs that I know of that use beziers are Catia V4, and some older European systems like Strim.

Regards

Mark

Alec.

Nope,,, Nurbs only.

The only CAD programs that I know of that use beziers are Catia V4, and some older European systems like Strim.

Regards

Mark

Interesting...

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???????

Thanks again

Alec

True of surface reps, but not curves?

Ashlar and CSI both list Bezier splines in their data sheets.

Disclaimer I share with jon: I don't know from Adam.

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.

Alec,

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

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.

Regards

Mark

Mark

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.

Hope that explains things a little better.

Thanks for the feedback.

Alec

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?

Alec,

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.

Regards

Mark