Thank you Arthur
So I want to share with all you robot designers a little history lesson on importing cad geometry. Since the beginning of cad systems in the stone age of late seventies and early eighties there were multiple cad software applications. Most had one or two file formats. Then requests came from customers that wanted to share data. Data exchange formats were born. A big player was IGES.
Today you are faced with multiple cad software. For the most part, 3d parametric software like SolidWorks, ProE, inventor are not backward compatible. Which means if you received a model file from a 2010 release you could not open it in 2009.
But Arthur used another neutral data exchange format called STEP.
STEP files can be read into CAD systems when you select File, Open and then change the files of type to STEP
The model is recreated. It is a dumb model meaning you cannot drive the model by dimensions or parameters. However for purchased parts, these models work great. You just have to add mass in the assembly. For SolidWorks this is under Tools,Mass Properties.
3DContentCentral.com makes an effort to go back 2 to 3 years plus add neutral file formats of different types. Some neutral file formats work differently between cad software.
In 1985 I worked with an early Cad software called Medusa and way back then when computers were the size of a classroom, engineers had issues with data exchange. History repeats itself. Marie