[spock]

Is anybody else having problems opening .dwg or .dxf files from 2013 Solidworks in ver 26? I can select and open the file, and I do not get an error message, but then all I get is a blank screen with no data on it. And before 10 people tell me that I can just use a solid: thanks, but I am not looking for a work around. I get lots of 2-d files from customers that are created in SW, so I use this daily.

[bobcad guy]

Well my first observation is, increase your fees to your customers, using solidworks to generate 2d models is wasting lots of money, but to the problem, the only thing I can think of is, using the merge option instead of the file open. I used to have some probs opening solidworks files with v25, and found that merge helped, sometimes just trying to open a few times would finally work too. On a side note, you do realize that .dwg files are NOT solidwoorks files right? That ext is used by autocad. You could ask customer to give you .sldprt , or .iges files instead, as that is the type of files I opened routinely with minor problems.

[SBC Cycle]

Are you sure you have nothing or is the wireframe the same color as the background. I ran into that the other day when working with a Catia exported 2D wireframe.

[SBC Cycle]

BTW, if workarounds bother you you should buy SW (if you haven't already) and buy a CAM plugin for it. Otherwise, workarounds are the name of the game when moving between softwares. You've got a SW model, translated to an Autodesk format, opening in BCC. You are going to have workarounds with this method. Why not export from SW to a generic format like STEP or IGS?

[mmoe]

What were the export settings for the DWG and DXF in Solidworks?

I would also wonder as SBC does if the data is the same color as the background. It can look like a new/blank file when this is the case and the easiest way to check is to select all, which will highlight everything if there's anything there. I usually then go to "Edit -> Modify Entity -> Attributes -> Color" and make it all blue or black.

[Forrest C]

Its probably the wrong format. When they export the file to dxf there is an options tab at the bottom of the box. You can select formats there. I've always had success with R12.

Forrest

[jrmach]

See if anything is there,,R-Click Entity Summary


Here's a tip from right out of Sorin's class,,Do not use White as your background color,use something like 2-3 shades from White.Another benefit of that is all the other colors show up better than on a white background.I have been doing it for 2 months now,and I have to say it is way better.

[mmoe]

Its probably the wrong format. When they export the file to dxf there is an options tab at the bottom of the box. You can select formats there. I've always had success with R12.

Forrest

I usually use R12 as well, though if you have splines in the drawing it will need to be at least R14 to keep them as splines. Another formatting issue is that some DXFs are ASCII and some are Binary. Bobcad doesn't seem to have a problem with either format, but some other CAD/CAM systems may require ASCII only, so I tend to set my DXFs to be ASCII formats. Not really applicable in this situation, but worth noting. I try to stick to R12 DXFs in ASCII format just in case I ever send the file to someone else using other software, as it is probably the most universally acceptable format. Splines have to be reduced to lines or arcs in that case.

[SBC Cycle]

See if anything is there,,R-Click Entity Summary


Here's a tip from right out of Sorin's class,,Do not use White as your background color,use something like 2-3 shades from White.Another benefit of that is all the other colors show up better than on a white background.I have been doing it for 2 months now,and I have to say it is way better.

That's a good tip jrmach. I might try a darker shade of white.

It's been a long time since I worked with a 2D drawing from Autocad. If I recall the default background was black and th entities were white. I've tried different backgrounds in the past but around V23 I got tired of resetting all of those little preferences across four computers.

[bobcad guy]

One last thought, I got a few autocad files, and upon opening, the drawings were super tiny, and waaaayyy out of the seeable area, so first move is "fit all" and if there's anything there, it will fit in the active area, then by zooming I would be able to see the file. I forgot about this till now.

[victorofga]

I was always wondering why a large company like dassault makes this mimicry.. they try to dressing into autodesk clothes..

[magicniner]

I was always wondering why a large company like dassault makes this mimicry.. they try to dressing into autodesk clothes..

Autodesk offers free educational licenses to ensure most students learn their ways of working in the hope that the student will then be tied to Autodesk products for life.
Making things familiar to Autodesk users makes commercial sense, you're more likely to get converts ;-)

- Nick

[shred]

FWIW, even the BCC-generated STL models get imported as white-on-white by default. Clicking the zoom-all button, then select-all gets them where you can change their colors. Might be the same for DXF & DWG

[magicniner]

I use an old, free version of Inventor to convert incompatible Autodesk models to a fromat which BobCad/Cam can deal with.
If Autodesk didn't change their standards almost as often as Microsoft then the problem wouldn't exist, the problem is not impossible to overcome though, and Autodesk provide us with free tools to do the job if wee look for them ;-)

- Nick