Alias surface models
can be transferred to Pro/ENGINEER in either IGES, STEP or PTC Granite
formats.
By using Alias,
there are two types of model information that can be set to and
read by Pro/ENGINEER: geometry information and topological information.
The Alias IGES file
includes only the description of the geometry information. The STEP
entities that Alias supports means that both the geometry information
as well as the topology information can be transferred and read
into Pro/ENGINEER. The geometric data describes the basic shape
of the object and in both Alias and Pro/ENGINEER, geometric
data is represented using NURBS.
Topological data describes
how the geometric components are connected together to form a solid.
The STEP file format has advantages over IGES when transferring Alias models
to Pro/ENGINEER because there is more information describing the
model that is being transferred.
Workflow for exporting
PTC Granite files (Window only)
When
exporting PTC Granite geometry from Alias to Pro/ENGINEER, you
should:
- Set Preferences > Construction Options Construction Presets to Pro/ENGINEER before
creating a model in Alias for Pro/ENGINEER.
- Use Alias, choose File > Save As,
with File Format Option set to PTC
Granite, to save a model,
or
Use Alias, choose File > Export > Active As,
with File Format Option set to PTC
Granite, to save selected parts of the model.
- Make sure the system's units in both
Pro/ENGINEER and Alias are set to millimeters as the default.
- Make sure the model part files do not
have short edges (shorter than curve-fit tolerance) before importing
the PTC Granite file into Pro/ENGINEER. To check, use Evaluate > Check Model and select the option Short
Edges under the Product Data Quality Recommended
Checks section.
- Try to remove all surface multi-knots
from your Alias model before saving as a PTC Granite file.
Multi-knot PTC Granite files may not be read into Pro/ENGINEER with
proper trimmed edges.
- Save translation time and make the transfer
to PTC Granite format faster by splitting closed surfaces, such
as cylinder, torus, sphere and cone, into two or four parts before saving.
The Pro/ENGINEER translator will split closed surfaces automatically
but if this procedure is done before it will save time.
To create a PTC Granite
file for Pro/ENGINEER (Windows only)
- Choose Surface Edit > Stitch > Shell Stitch to ensure you have created
a closed volume before exporting it in PTC Granite format.
- Choose the object to be exported so that
it is the “active” object.
- Choose File > Export > Active As ❒.
- Choose PTC Granite from
the File Format pull-down menu.
- If the file is going to be read by an
older version of Pro/ENGINEER, you may need to set the Granite
Version of the translator to an earlier version as well.
The default is Granite 6.0 (current version).
- Choose the Save icon
and specify the PTC Granite file name. Alias automatically
appends the .g extension to
the file name. This file is now ready to be read into Pro/ENGINEER.
For more information
refer to Workflow for exporting PTC Granite files (Window only).
To create an IGES format file for Pro/ENGINEER
- Pick the object to be exported so that
it is the active object.
- Choose File > Export > Active As ❒.
- Choose IGES from
the File Format pull-down menu.
- Choose the Save icon
and specify the IGES file name. Alias automatically appends
the .igs extension
to the file name.
The
file is now ready to be read into Pro/ENGINEER.
To create a STEP file in Alias for
Pro/ENGINEER
- Select the object to be exported so that
it is the “active” object.
- Choose File > Export > Active As ❒.
- Choose STEP from
the File Format pull-down menu.
- Choose AP214 for
the Application Protocol.
- The Alias model should have already
been stitched into a solid shell (volume) or a shell (group of stitched
surfaces that do not describe a volume).
- Choose under the Model
Type either:
Manifold
Shells- A collection of stitched surfaces that do not
describe a volume is saved out as a G3 Manifold Shell.
or
Brep
Solids-Stitched geometry that describes a closed volume
is written out as a G5 Brep Solid.
- Choose the Save icon
and specify the STEP file name. Alias automatically appends
the .stp extension
to the file name. This file is now ready to be read into Pro/ENGINEER.
To set options in Pro/ENGINEER
for export and import
To make the import and
export of IGES and STEP files easier for Alias to read.
- In Pro/ENGINEER, select Utilities
> Options.
- Add the following data to the configuration
file.
IGES_OUT_ALL_SRFS_AS 128
IGES_OUT_SPL_CRVS_AS_126 YES
IGES_OUT_SPL_SRFS_AS_128 YES
IGES_OUT_MIL_D_28000 NO
IGES_OUT_TRM_SRFS_AS_143 NO
IGES_OUT_TRIM_CURVE_DEVIATION DEFAULT
INTF_OUT_BLANKED_ENTITIES NO
INTF3D_OUT_EXTEND_SURFACE YES
INTF3D_OUT_FORCE_SURF_NORMALS YES
IGES_IN_106_F2_AS_SPLINE NO
IGES_IN_DWG_LINE_FONT YES
IGES_IN_DWG_PNT_ENT YES
IGES_IN_DWG_COLOR YES
FIX_BOUNDARIES_ON_IMPORT YES