[bartL]

Hello,

I'm planning to start my own business in a short while and would like to know some things first.
Since I've got very good experiences, and a lot of knowledge about Pro Engineer Wildfire I'm going to use that software as my main CAD software. But some of my customers use Inventor for their CAD drawings. Now I would like to know if it's possible to convert Pro/E files to Inventor files without loosing the used features (Extrude, revolve, sketches etc.)? If it's not directly possible maybe somebody overhere knows if there's software available which can convert the files.

Thanks,
Bart

[wages]

Hi Bart,
Inventor can open a Pro-E file (and Solidworks) and convert it to a base solid. Once that is done you can use the feature recognition tool on the part to convert them to parametric features. See this link to watch the feature recognition in action.

video
http://labs.autodesk.com/files/1_100/36/file_36.wmv

PDF
http://labs.autodesk.com/files/101_200/166/file_166.pdf

There are also some softwares out there that will do this en mass, but they tend to be pricey.

Also, if you know Wildfire inside and out, you'll probably always be more comfortable with it, but if most of your customers use Inventor, I'm certain that your experince with Wildfire will make Learning Inventor a breeze. Good luck either way with your new business.

[bartL]

Wages,

Thanks for your fast reply.
I've worked with both programs, Inventor for almost a year and Pro/E for more than two years now. So I can work with Inventor as well but I pretty much want to focus on only one CAD program because that will work the best and the fastest I assume.

I've heard about that feature recognize tool before but I never saw it, thanks for the links! But I also read it can't read sheetmetal parts from Pro/E which I use quite often and which is a really strong feature in Pro/E.

Bart

[wages]

Ahhh, sheetmetal is a whole other bag of tricks. I can generally flatten an imported model in Inventor, but as far as recognizing the parameteric features, i'm not aware of a way to due that. Inventor will finally be getting some the free-form sheetmetal tools, in its next release, or so i've been told. But i'm unsure what kind of feature recognition would be avaliable.

Transmagic and Elysium are 2 of the translator tools that i'm aware of. I've used Transmagic and have seen Elysium, netierh are cheap.

Transmagic converts to a base solid, Elysium converts to a full parametric model. I 'm not sure about sheetmetal though.

[bartL]

Wages,

Offcourse I would like to convert all the features made with Pro/E but I think that would be a bit to ambitious. But especially sheetmetal parts are important for me.
I found something about Elysium on internet but no demo's or something else to try. Do you know something about the costs of such a program?
If I understand you correct transmagic is almost the same as a simple .STEP file isn't it? That wouldn't be good enough for me.
The most important thing is that customers can work on parts I made, so when a revision has to be made they can do it by theirselves.

Bart

[wages]

Right, Transmagic would be about the same as importing a STEP, the diff would be that it allows you to batch convert an entire directory, etc.

I don't know much about Elysium other than that it is very expensive. It's purpose is to provide fully parametric conversions for companies that are changing parametric modeler platforms and need to batch process years worth of files. I think they offer conversion as a service also. But I don't know if its reasonable.

i'll try and post more info on what i can do with an imported sheetmetal part later. Is the object to provide another shop the model and then let them modify the bends and corners for their tooling,etc?

[bartL]

Is the object to provide another shop the model and then let them modify the bends and corners for their tooling,etc?

Well, I'm going to develop parts and assemblies (of complete machines) and then offer the company the total package of drawings. When that company isn't completly satisfied with something (for example because of the tooling they use) they can change things easily by theirselves. Or when a revision is neccesary after a few year of production they can do it by themselves.
I don't want a company to feel bonded to me, I wouldn't feel comfortable when I sort of depent on another company too.

Bart

[wages]

I finally had a chance to have a look at what all we can do with and impored sheet metal part in Inventor. I can generate the flat, and then modify it, etc. I can add features, flanges, cutouts, punches, etc. I was able to stretch the folded model, or shrink it, but only if it was a pretty linear part, and thing to curved wouldn't stretch.

But ultimatly, it's still along way from being able to parametrically edit it the way we would a native file. maybe someday.