Just wondering if anybody has made a ProE assembly of the andymark gearbox? Couldn’t find it in the library or on the Andymark site. Otherwise I think I am going to try assembling it myself soon…
Thanks
I’ve always converted the STEP files (from the AndyMark website) to a Pro/E format, and used that. It’s just too much effort to rebuild the model, especially when I don’t have a full set of drawings to work with.
Which AndyMark gearbox were you thinking of? (They sell many types.)
I believe that I’ve got the Super Shifter and Toughbox models in Wildfire 3.0 educational format, if you’re interested. There aren’t any nice features like colours or material properties, but geometrically, they’re equivalent to the STEP files.
On the other hand, it’s a good exercise to figure out how to convert file types and make nice, clean assemblies from imported STEP data using Pro/E.
I think it’s the toughbox, I know it was included in the 09 kit. I found the .stp file on the AM site, but I’m not sure how to convert it to pro/E, so could you point me in the right direction? I’ve had a class in pro/E but I’m no expert by any standard. And if you have already converted that, then those files would be appreciated as well 
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Thanks, I’m trying to get my team excited about pro/e at the moment (and teach people how to use it…)
To convert a STEP file to Pro/E format, go to File | Set Working Directory, and navigate to the directory where you want to save the CAD files (if you use subdirectories, you might need to configure Pro/E to use a search.pro file). Copy the STEP file to that directory (if it’s not already there). Then go to File | Open, and in the dialog box, and change the file type to either “All Files (*)” or “STEP (.stp, .step)”. You should then be able to see and open the STEP file.
Once you open it, it will give you the option to import as one of many different types. If you just need a solid object in the shape of a gearbox, you can import as a part. If you’d rather have access to the individual parts (as separate .prt files), then import as an assembly. Either way, the imported geometry will not be parametric (meaning you can’t easily edit the imported features, but you can add new features later). You’ll need to enter a name; this will become the filename of the assembly. Because of a quirk in the way STEP (and IGES) data are imported, you may want to give the imported assemblies a temporary name.
The temporary name is only necessary if you feel the need to clean up the model tree at this point. You’ll see that there’s a parent assembly (with your temporary name), then there’s a child assembly that bears the name of the imported CAD assembly, and then there are the individual parts (as children of the second assembly). I’ll often just reopen the child assembly, save it, and delete the parent assembly (with the temporary name)—that way my model tree is more logical, and my new assembly filename is the same as the original STEP file. You can safely skip that step if you don’t care.
At that point, have a look around the file. If you do that cleanup thing that I suggested, the one piece of data that you lose is a default co-ordinate system. It’s not generally too useful, but you can easily re-create it in the assembly if you want.
I also went a step further with the Pro/E assembly of the Super Shifter: in that case, I wanted to have the option of modelling either the pneumatic version, or the servo-shifted version. So I created a family table that describes two instances of the generic Super Shifter, one with the pneumatic parts suppressed and the servo parts active, and vice versa. I also removed the CIM motors, because I have a better CAD model of those (that I did years ago), and because I might want to attach a different input (like an AndyMark planetary gearbox).
In any case, if you want to do this the easy way, here are the files, zipped: Super Shifter, Toughbox.* Those are based on the files that AndyMark released, and I figure that this is an acceptable use of them.
*I don’t know how long those files will be posted… The link may die at some point in the future.
just a note, the schools edition of pro-e does not support step file imports right now. I talked to them about the problem and they said they are going to push a new release. You need an igs file in the meantime.
If you still need the toughbox tomorrow I will do it for you.
Greg
Wow thanks for all the help, I downloaded your toughbox and it looks great, and it should be a good demo for my team. Unfortunately I have the schools edition of pro/E so I guess I’ll have to hold off on converting step files for the moment, but I’ll try to learn how to do that once I get back to school and have access to a better version. Thanks again.
If you checkout this thread you can get all the details for the toughbox in ProE format. However, there is no assembly file so you’ll have to assemble them yourself.