On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 17:37:50 -0800, Dennis Saputelli wrote: >�does it read and write solidworks files?
That was a primary criteria for me -- whatever package I purchased had to provide a seamless mechanism to share data bidirectionally with Solidworks and ProE. Alibre Design reads and writes STEP and ACIS files as does Solidworks and ProE. One of my main clients -- a machine shop that makes lots of injection molds and uses Solidworks -- advised me early on that anything with good STEP and ACIS file support would be compatible with Solidworks. They do a LOT of data import/export with their clients so I tend to trust their experience on this issue. I also studied many posts on the Alibre user's forum as they have many users that share data between Alibre and Solidworks and ProE. I only found a very few issues reported and most of those had fairly easy workarounds, it appeared. It seems that all the 3D solid modeling software uses very similar methods to describe a design and they all have quite similar features. I'll be trying to export some simple assemblies to Solidworks soon, but I really don't expect many (if any) issues based on my experience so far. So far I've imported several parts and assemblies created in Solidworks with no problems found. I've also imported several 3D parts models (connectors mostly) from Samtec and Molex that worked flawlessly. It appears that STEP and ACIS files really are very transportable. It seems the 3D CAD guys learned something the 2D guys (especially Autocad) and PCB CAD guys never did -- it really does pay to have OPEN common file formats that everyone follows and plays nicely with. Matt Pobursky Maximum Performance Systems � ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
