Open AutoDesk files in SolidWorks

[Akademee]

Hello Chief Delphi,

My task for this season is to CAD our robot in SolidWorks, however, I have been unable to locate a contiguous 2010 kop for SolidWorks. I know that there is the 3D Content Central, except out of the hundreds of files there are, I cannot seem to download it in one package. I also know that ProE files can be immediately called up in SolidWorks, but every single part file from the ProE directory needs to be extracted one by one by hand and has become very impractical as there are hundreds of files.

However, I was able to fully download and extract very good looking parts from the AutoDesk Directory. I need to know if there is a way to open these parts in SolidWorks. When ever I attempt to alter any "Options" in the "Open" menu, it only leads to SolidWorks, in essence, becoming disabled and will not perform any other functions as it says the program is busy. If there is a converter or any other "options" settings that need to be changed, I would really appreciate any help with this issue and I can get this robot designed.

Thanks Chief Delphi!

[gblake]

You might find something helpful in this collection of AutoDesk tools
http://students.autodesk.com/

Or from something like the FBX to/from Collada (and other formats) tool here (rummage around in the rest of the site to see what you can find).
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...12&id=10775855

I'm pretty sure you want to accomplish this without diving too deeply into Inventor and the rest of the Autodesk products, so I'm guessing these two suggestions are long shots; but maybe you will get lucky.

Blake

[Akademee]

Thanks for the help Blake, unfortunately I was not able to come to any results. I was recently told that AutoDesk and SolidWorks use relatively the same model types and therefore I should only need to change a few settings for opening the files and they will run fine, is this accurate?

[Akash Rastogi]

The most trafficked CAD site available to FIRST teams is now the EWCP library, sponsored by Solidworks.

If you cannot find what you need there, send myself or user R.C. a part request and we'll see what we can do.

http://team1323.com/cad/index.html

[Akademee]

I think I just died and went to heaven!

Thank you so much Akash!

[Akademee]

This site is absolutely wonderful, but when I attempt to open a part in SolidWorks, it says that it is a future version and cannot be opened. FIRST gave us SolidWorks 2008-2009 and I know for a fact that SolidWorks is not backwards compatible, is there anything else that can be done?

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by Akademee

This site is absolutely wonderful, but when I attempt to open a part in SolidWorks, it says that it is a future version and cannot be opened. FIRST gave us SolidWorks 2008-2009 and I know for a fact that SolidWorks is not backwards compatible, is there anything else that can be done?

Download the step and drag and drop into Solidworks.

-RC

[Akademee]

I am having trouble with opening both .stp files and .igs files in Solidworks. This worries me very much as before I was able to open .stp files in the program. Whenever I try to open a .stp file, I get a dialogue error box that says the file is either missing or invalid, among other things of similar meaning.

I have gone to both the Solidworks-sponsored site as well as the one suggested to me earlier and no files seem to work.

I can even open the Solidworks files that come from the site as well, yet ones that I have created my self still work fine. Should I begin to assume the worst with my solidworks program?

Thanks everybody,
Akademee

[Jimmy Cao]

Originally Posted by Akademee

I can even open the Solidworks files that come from the site as well, yet ones that I have created my self still work fine. Should I begin to assume the worst with my solidworks program?

Did you mean "I can't"? If that's the case, I would be suspicious that Solidworks is doing something funny, in which case a re-install (or the "repair" utility) might fix it.

However, it is conceivable that the .igs/.stp files you're opening are genuinely corrupt. If that's the case, you need to get non-corrupt versions of those files.

EDIT: One other thing, which version of Solidworks are you using? If you're using SW08 and the site's giving you SW10 files, then it is unlikely that you would be able to open them.

[Akademee]

I apologize for the typo, I did mean to say "I can't." The other Solidworks files didn't concern me too much as I am aware that Solidworks possesses no backwards compatibility. However, I have always been able to open and access ,stp file types without any problems. I have not had a reason in the past to reinstall or repair Solidworks, what do I have to run in order to get to the "repair" function, I would assume the installation wizard.

It is interesting how you mentioned that the files themselves could be corrupted. I am working on another project that needed a rather large bearing and I went to McMaster-Carr and I was able to receive a solidworks CAD file of exactly what I wanted and it went into the assembly with no problem at all. Is it probable that the .stp files from both sites are corrupted?

If it is worth mentioning; to my knowledge, my Solidworks 2008-2009 has not downloaded and installed any recent updates.

Thanks,
Akademee

[Jimmy Cao]

It's conceivable that the .stp files from your 2 sources share a common origin, in which case I wouldn't be surprised if they're both bad.

I believe the repair utility can be accessed via either 1) Add/Remove program menu (control panel, it'll probably ask for your SW DVD), or 2) The setup program on the SW DVD (forgot what it's called). When prompted, pick repair instead of remove.

Good luck.