Data Translators:

What IGES Export Options Should I Set When Sending Files To DELCAM DUCT?

We regularly transfer 3-D IGES data from I-DEAS to our plastic mould toolmakers, FEP AXXICON, who use DELCAM DUCT. We have found the following IGES write options work well:

OPTIONS:     Points Off
             Curves Off
             Bounded Model Space Trim Curves
             Point Coincident Tolerance 0.00001

FLAVOURS:    B-Spline Standard Flavour

What IGES Export Options Should I Set When Sending Files To CADDS5?

OPTIONS:     Points Off
             Curves Off
             Bounded Model Space Trim Curves
             Point Coincident Tolerance 0.01

FLAVOURS:    B-Spline Standard Flavour

What IGES Export Options Should I Set When Sending Files To UNIGRAPHICS?

OPTIONS:     Points Off
             Curves Off
             Trimmed Surfaces
             Point Coincident Tolerance 0.01

FLAVOURS:    B-Spline Standard Flavour

*NEW TRANSLATOR* - IGES Export Flavour file for I-Deas Assemblies to Rhino CAD

Uses trimmed surfaces and IGES levels, each asssembly instance is placed on a seperate Rhino layer maintaining part colours.

*NEW TRANSLATOR* - IGES Export Flavour file for I-Deas Assemblies to Algor FEA

Uses trimmed surfaces and IGES sub-figures, each assembly instance is placed in a seperate Algor group.

How To Import Drafting VG Profiles into Master Modeller

An interesting command that is available in MS3 and MS4 is the ability to read in a Drafting Detailing vg profile directly into Master Modeler. (MS4 will retain the view orientation matrix of the Detailing view).

Create the vg profile in the desired view orientation (MS4) in Detailing. While in the VG command, select set/save and export the profile. This will create a YOURNAME.prf file.

In Master Modeler, select /create special symbol (In MS4 if you turn on the pull down menus you will see it under create special techniques). This menu will be set to filter for *.prf files and when selected will read the profile into I-Deas.

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Info supplied by Linda Tabeling, SDRC Drafting - linda.tabeling@sdrc.com

How To Produce Smooth Movies in MS4.0

Ever tried to produced a smooth SGI movie just using the pan, zoom and rotate dynamic viewing keys, for example a constant speed 360 degree rotation, it's near impossible. Using F2 bank2 (Y rotation only) helps but the trick is to use the F5 "View Reset" key together with /v rs 0 90 0.

The following is a posting sent to the ICCON list:

To help with your smooth 360 deg rotation, you should create keyframes every 90 deg. and let the movie software do the interpolation. You can use F2 bank 2 as you mentioned. If you require more precise keyframes you can leave the Movie form between keyframe settings and use the /v rs 0 90 0 command. To do this create to first keyframe. Then leave the the Movie form and set the next view with /v rs 0 90 0. Go back to the movie form and use F5 to get to the view you just set and add this as a keyframe. You can do this at 90 deg intervals to produce an exact rotation. Varying the steps between keyframes on the movie form will set the number of intermediate steps in the interpolation.

F5 can be also very useful in duplicating the first keyframe as the last keyframe to create movies which will continuously loop smoothly. You can also use the method of creating the first keyframe twice when you start creating keyframes. Since you then insert keyframes at any point, insert the remaining keyframes in between these keyframes, This will also insure that the first and last keyframe are exactly the same.

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Info supplied by Doug Dennis, Global Parther Manager- Your SGI Team On-Site at SDRC, dougd@atlas.corp.sgi.com

How To Produce More Accurate SLA Files.

By default I-DEAS limits the facet deviation of SLA files to 0.01 min. When used with the default iso line density value of 0 this can produce very coarse SLA files for parts that have large radius surfaces.

The accuracy of the SLA file can be increased in two ways:

1. Add the following line to the .ideas_param file (global or per user):

   Rapid.IgnoreLowerBound: 1

   This will allow the use of facet deviation values lower than 0.01 when exporting an SLA file

2. Increase the iso line density value (using appearance) - maximum value is 4. Best to do this only on selected surfaces as display speed can reduce dramatically.

The following table gives the facet count for a typical surface when changing these parameters:

This combination found to give the best result.