Im using SW 2022 and recently needed to import a Step file with 100's of Solid Bodies and Surface Bodies. I needed this to then model my new assembly around it and this new assy was flexible with moving parts. SW now gives you two ways to import step files, traditional and 3D Connect. I tried both ways in order to try and use the imported bodies with my new assy but got rather confused in the process. I needed to modify some of the bodies from the step file but it seemed that Featureworks wouldn't work. It was greyed out sometimes or in other situations it said I had overlapping solid bodies and wouldn't work. If I suppressed bodies Featureworks says You have suppressed components and thus does not work.I assume there are many times you might need to import a step file made with many parts, put them in a SW assy and if necessary modify the part using SW features that have been created with Featureworks. I can't find a demo of this workflow anywhere. Am I missing something????
FeatureWorks definitely has limitations, and in cases where the imported model isn't very good it will throw a fit, such as overlapping bodies. From what I've seen, FeatureWorks is great when you have a single solid body, or a couple of solid bodies that are relatively simple and properly mated, and just need to modify a fillet or move a hole location. Once you start getting into complex assemblies, it loses usefulness pretty fast. If you're in that situation, you will probably need to use other modeling tricks to modify the imported bodies. If you're interested, this blog post has some great information regarding 3D Interconnect and FeatureWorks workflows: www.innova-systems.co.uk/featureworks-missing-cant-edit-step-files/
These is not currently a way to keep mates in a .step file (the file type simply does not store that information), but you should be able to import Creo assemblies directly into Solidworks. There should be an option to "import component constraints", which are the Creo equivalent to mates.
Is there a better way of doing this? I find this painfully tedious, Im new to solidworks, I use autodesk inventor alot and its really easy to do this and it's logical in inventor. I Don understand why do I have to save individual bodies and assembly them AGAIN in another assembly. What if my step file has 50 bodies? Does in means I will have to save 50 bodies and assembly them together in order to use them? Sorry I'm just frustrated with the method, im still trying to understand why of solidworks.
I completely understand your frustration, and I would agree that this is very tedious. Unfortunately, there's not really a better way of doing this in Solidworks that I'm aware of. If you have a very large assembly, I would recommend only doing this for components that need to move within the assembly. Group as many bodies together as possible to save time, for example nuts and bolts used to mount actuators can typically be grouped with the main body of the actuator since those components will be fixed relative to each other. Planning is also critical for larger assemblies - you need to carefully think through how the parts are going to interact to reduce the time spent using this method. The bottom line is that Solidworks is a powerful modeling tool for design from the ground up. However, it is not necessarily the best tool for working with complex imported files that need to be integrated with native files. From what I've seen, that's where Autodesk software does really well. Both programs have their strengths and weaknesses, and a lot comes down to personal preference, prior experience, and industry-specific functionality requirements.
@@schanerdesigns thanks for the explanation, really really appreciated it. I actually have more questions about step file and exporting methods, I don't know if you can help me. Haha
@@schanerdesigns Hi, i have been doing some solidworks assemblies, one problem I encounter is that, when I import a step file, and try to add new configurations, the default configuration would automatically be suppressed, sometimes I'm able to unsuppress it and the parts would appear, but sometime I'm unable to unsuppress the the part, the part would just disappear. there is no bodies under solid bodies tap. configuration changes is just change of different materials.
@@jinken9613 Here are a couple of things that I think will help you: 1) When you create a new configuration, that configuration automatically becomes the active configuration so the Default configuration will be greyed out. You can get back to it by double clicking on it in the Configurations tab. 2) In assemblies, if you want to suppress a part for a configuration, make sure you suppress it on the assembly level and not on the part level. In the FeatureManager tree, if you click the dropdown for the part it will show all of the features for that part. If you right click on one of the features and suppress it, it will just suppress the feature at the part level, and not the part itself. To suppress the part from an assembly, you need to make sure that you are suppressing the part and not a feature of the part. When the part is properly suppressed, the dropdown for that part will not be available and the part will be greyed out in the FeatureManager. If only a feature is suppressed, the dropdown will still show up, but that feature will be greyed out. 3) For material changes on a part with multiple configurations, check out Configure Material (right click on Material at the part level). This will allow you to assign material based on configuration, and quickly see what material is assigned to each configuration. 4) Lastly, if you plan on making any modifications or configurations to an imported .step file, I recommend saving the file as a .SLDPRT file before importing it to your assembly. This will allow you to create configurations, make extruded cuts, suppress or hide bodies, etc., all at the part level. When you simply import a .step file directly into the assembly, it keeps things simple but also limits what you can do with it.
Im using SW 2022 and recently needed to import a Step file with 100's of Solid Bodies and Surface Bodies. I needed this to then model my new assembly around it and this new assy was flexible with moving parts. SW now gives you two ways to import step files, traditional and 3D Connect. I tried both ways in order to try and use the imported bodies with my new assy but got rather confused in the process. I needed to modify some of the bodies from the step file but it seemed that Featureworks wouldn't work. It was greyed out sometimes or in other situations it said I had overlapping solid bodies and wouldn't work. If I suppressed bodies Featureworks says You have suppressed components and thus does not work.I assume there are many times you might need to import a step file made with many parts, put them in a SW assy and if necessary modify the part using SW features that have been created with Featureworks. I can't find a demo of this workflow anywhere. Am I missing something????
FeatureWorks definitely has limitations, and in cases where the imported model isn't very good it will throw a fit, such as overlapping bodies. From what I've seen, FeatureWorks is great when you have a single solid body, or a couple of solid bodies that are relatively simple and properly mated, and just need to modify a fillet or move a hole location. Once you start getting into complex assemblies, it loses usefulness pretty fast. If you're in that situation, you will probably need to use other modeling tricks to modify the imported bodies.
If you're interested, this blog post has some great information regarding 3D Interconnect and FeatureWorks workflows: www.innova-systems.co.uk/featureworks-missing-cant-edit-step-files/
How to retain mates when importing step file from Creo?
These is not currently a way to keep mates in a .step file (the file type simply does not store that information), but you should be able to import Creo assemblies directly into Solidworks. There should be an option to "import component constraints", which are the Creo equivalent to mates.
Is there a better way of doing this? I find this painfully tedious, Im new to solidworks, I use autodesk inventor alot and its really easy to do this and it's logical in inventor. I Don understand why do I have to save individual bodies and assembly them AGAIN in another assembly. What if my step file has 50 bodies? Does in means I will have to save 50 bodies and assembly them together in order to use them? Sorry I'm just frustrated with the method, im still trying to understand why of solidworks.
I completely understand your frustration, and I would agree that this is very tedious. Unfortunately, there's not really a better way of doing this in Solidworks that I'm aware of. If you have a very large assembly, I would recommend only doing this for components that need to move within the assembly. Group as many bodies together as possible to save time, for example nuts and bolts used to mount actuators can typically be grouped with the main body of the actuator since those components will be fixed relative to each other. Planning is also critical for larger assemblies - you need to carefully think through how the parts are going to interact to reduce the time spent using this method.
The bottom line is that Solidworks is a powerful modeling tool for design from the ground up. However, it is not necessarily the best tool for working with complex imported files that need to be integrated with native files. From what I've seen, that's where Autodesk software does really well. Both programs have their strengths and weaknesses, and a lot comes down to personal preference, prior experience, and industry-specific functionality requirements.
@@schanerdesigns thanks for the explanation, really really appreciated it. I actually have more questions about step file and exporting methods, I don't know if you can help me. Haha
@@jinken9613 What other questions do you have? I'll help if I can.
@@schanerdesigns Hi, i have been doing some solidworks assemblies, one problem I encounter is that, when I import a step file, and try to add new configurations, the default configuration would automatically be suppressed, sometimes I'm able to unsuppress it and the parts would appear, but sometime I'm unable to unsuppress the the part, the part would just disappear. there is no bodies under solid bodies tap. configuration changes is just change of different materials.
@@jinken9613 Here are a couple of things that I think will help you:
1) When you create a new configuration, that configuration automatically becomes the active configuration so the Default configuration will be greyed out. You can get back to it by double clicking on it in the Configurations tab.
2) In assemblies, if you want to suppress a part for a configuration, make sure you suppress it on the assembly level and not on the part level. In the FeatureManager tree, if you click the dropdown for the part it will show all of the features for that part. If you right click on one of the features and suppress it, it will just suppress the feature at the part level, and not the part itself. To suppress the part from an assembly, you need to make sure that you are suppressing the part and not a feature of the part. When the part is properly suppressed, the dropdown for that part will not be available and the part will be greyed out in the FeatureManager. If only a feature is suppressed, the dropdown will still show up, but that feature will be greyed out.
3) For material changes on a part with multiple configurations, check out Configure Material (right click on Material at the part level). This will allow you to assign material based on configuration, and quickly see what material is assigned to each configuration.
4) Lastly, if you plan on making any modifications or configurations to an imported .step file, I recommend saving the file as a .SLDPRT file before importing it to your assembly. This will allow you to create configurations, make extruded cuts, suppress or hide bodies, etc., all at the part level. When you simply import a .step file directly into the assembly, it keeps things simple but also limits what you can do with it.
I can hardly hear.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll be sure to watch out for that on my next video.