TurboCAD – Alibre File Transfers.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Specifically, using an imported elevation as a “sketch” base.

 

Having found at last a key area where I kept going wrong in TurboCAD I have started re-drawing the GA, orthographically, for my steam-lorry engine.

This is so I can design each component in place without needing draw it fully – that is for a later detail drawing – so I can “seed” it at the same time as establishing its relationship to the rest.

I need orthographic drawings for workshop use, anyway. However, if I want to model some parts and simpler sub-assemblies in 3D, I would have to use Alibre Atom and a transferable file (.DWG) for a 2D sketch foundation.

In theory. I tried. Alibre just saved my attempts as if pictures, basically.

.

So, if it is possible to open an imported .dwg file for further editing as an Alibre model, how, please?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I have posted before with examples of how to get an DXF or DWG file to “open” as a sketch in Alibre In answer to your other queries about it.

Once imported into Alibre as a DXF or DWG file you can open it and select all or part of the 2D drawing then copy and paste that as a sketch to start the 3D modeling.

Can you just confirm that it is opening TC drawings in Alibre that you want rather than the other way round.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

This is the thread where I showed how it is done.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Nigel,

Key points are as follows.

• Alibre will import the .DWG or .DXF into the 2D drawing workspace.
• You have to select ‘sketch on sheet’ from the right click context menu to get into ‘edit mode’.
• You can then select and copy figures as required.
• copied sketch figures from the 2D drawing workspace can be pasted (or paste stamped) into 2D sketch of a 3D part workspace.

Note also – if the imported drawing contains symbols (AutoCAD Blocks), these must be exploded.

.DWG and .DXF files often are not well formed – it may be necessary to do some remedial tidying to get a valid profile that can be used to drive a 3D feature in Alibre.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Did you resolve your ‘Snap’ problem Nigel?

If so, what was the solution?

Regards,

 

IanT

P.S.  I needed to re-visit some of my older (from 15 year ago!) TC drawings again last week. I’ve done this a fair bit in the past of course but haven’t needed to do so for a while, as I’ve been using SE for over 5 years now. I simply export the TC native drawings as DXFs and then open them in Solid Edge CE as new (native) SE ‘Draft’ documents. From that point on, I don’t need to go back to TC again.

I’ve not had any issues with working on my old TC files as 2D ‘draft’ drawings, as SE effectively has a ‘2D CAD’ system buried within it that is very capable. I’ve mentioned this before of course but SE does ‘2D’ very well and there’s no need to venture into 3D if you don’t need (or want) to do so. Having said that, I have also migrated some of my earlier TC 2D work into 3D models with SE – although I don’t need 3D for this latest batch (I just wanted to amend the drawings and print them)

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

My advice is don’t!  This Snark is a Boojum.

A 3D-CAD package’s ability to import 2D drawings is fundamentally limited.    2D-CAD drawings have many features, such as layers, that are unlikely to exist in 3D or are applied differently.  It can get very messy.

As 2D and 3D file formats aren’t compatible, importing a 2D drawing requires the 3D package to strip out a lot of 2D jibber-jabber. Often causes difficult migration problems, and is mainly done by advanced users when forced to move a model to a new environment.

Much filtering is done automatically, but it’s likely a skilled operator will have to intervene.  David Jupp mentions the need to explode AutoCAD Blocks.  Blocks are just one of many snags!   To solve it the operator needs to know if TurboCAD uses Blocks, and if so, how to explode them.  And understand the consequences; collateral damage to the 2D original.  Then he has to know what corrections are needed at the 3D end.  Certainly not impossible, but do not expect transferring drawings to be easy!

Nigel hopes TurboCAD and Alibre will co-operate, and they will – up to a point!  Problem is that coupling TurboCAD and Alibre together isn’t simple.  Try it and see!   I predict that, although some basic drawings will transfer cleanly, many others will require remedial action.   Little point in asking for help here when it goes wrong.  I don’t think anyone has all the necessary skills. Diagnosing a migration problem requires TurboCAD and Alibre skills plus a good understanding of DXF & DWG file formats.

My advice: cut losses by standardising on Alibre. Learn how to drive it properly.   Simplify by not hopping between two very different CAD packages.  Changing horses in mid-stream and all that!   Earlier this year excellent progress was made with Alibre and it’s well-supported here.  What went wrong?

Dave

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Generally agree with you Dave

All of my ‘new’ CAD work is now done in SE but I have twenty plus years of TC (2D) work that I find useful to dip in to from time to time (although much less often these days). I’ve not had any real problems in doing so.  Perhaps my work is simpler than Nigels ( I gave up on TC ‘3D’ very early on and avoided it like the plaque thereafter). But I’ve moved a lot of TC work over and it’s saved me time. I’ve never been exactly sure what TC ‘features’ Nigel uses and I stopped upgrading TC in 2016, so can only comment on migrating my TC drawings. Nigels work may use features that mine don’t.

Anyway, we have been around this issue (or ones similar to it) a few times now and I guess it is what it is…

Regards,

 

IanT

 

Got to go do some sorting out in the main workshop now, inspite of the 31 degree heat outside. I’m afraid some 40 years of “come in handy one day” stuff will be going to the Tip next week.  Ketan made me an offer I couldn’t resist and I need to make more room…  🙂

 

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Dave,

You over-dramatize, there is no requirement to know anything about the source CAD app.  You don’t need to know much if anything about DXF/DWG either.

Alibre has an Explode function within its 2D drawing workspace to deal with symbols/blocks.  It also has a sketch analysis tool that will find issues such as overlaps, intersections, etc.

The other thread includes a link to a video that covers most of the pitfalls and traps, and how to deal with them.

It’s condescending in the extreme to suggest that nobody has the necessary skills.

Whilst it can often be as fast or faster to re-model from scratch, starting from an imported DXF or DWG is not particularly difficult, it’s a relatively straightforward process once you are used to the workflow.

 

 

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Agree with David, I have no Idea what that drawing I used in my example originated from but had no problem. As the saying goes “just do it”

Nigel, if you want to send me one of your DXF or DWG files created in TC I’ll do another example with pictures as I know you don’t like video.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Yes, sorry. I don’t worry about what is going on in the ‘background’ – I’m simply exporting a DXF file from TC and then directly opening it in SE Draft. It’s very straight forward. I was agreeing with Dave in terms of committing to a single CAD system and sticking with it where ever possible

With regards to starting drawing from scratch or using existing work, sometimes that is easier to start over for 3D work but for some other things it most certainly isn’t..

Here is a simple TC 2D (DXF) file that I’ve just opened in SE Draft.  Everything is there (layers/dimensions etc) and I can use exactly the same sketching tools in SE 2D that I normally use in SE 3D modelling. I can then save this as a native SE ‘Draft’ doument either exactly ‘as is’ or amended as required. I then have no need to return to TC for this drawing ever again. As I have quite a lot of this kind of work, re-creating everything from scratch again would take a long time (even if I still had the source references to hand).

Regards,

 

IanT

(It’s really quite warm out there atm….)

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Second attempt to reply. I accidentally hit two keys at once and it turned the whole page into some sort of image file, .pdf I think., closing the Forum and forcing me to re-open it, this time demanding I recognise American stairs.

………

Thank you Gents.

First things first:

Please remember I have no original drawings for this project, just low-grade copies of trade advertising material from 1908, so I need design the whole thing to match. I am not translating a long-published model-engineering plan-set, nor original manufacturers’ drawings, to CAD.

Already I have made fundamental changes, from compound to simple-expansion, and modifying the connecting-rod length twice.

So I need a drawing system that lets me think both machine and machine-part together. I cannot design a machine from isolated, individual parts; and cannot design the parts without at least a partial layout.

.

Ian –

Snaps: yes, thankyou, with help from Paul Tracey who also sent me a set of introductory videos far clearer and more useful than even IMSI’s contractors manage.

It seems many have been caught out by trying to use TurboCAD in the directly-intuitive way, by the tool-bar menus. It responds better to what it calls its SEKE moves (Single-Entry Keyboard Equivalents) I had previously not used.

.

I am perfectly well aware this transfer business will ONLY work for a single-layer 2D image, either an orthographic elevation for use in a 3D model, or a 3D model facet to use in an orthographic drawing. Certainly not for assemblies, in either direction. I did not expect otherwise. I cannot model a complex machine in 3D in either TurboCAD or Alibre anyway, although it is possible in both.

As far as I know, TurboCAD has no equivalent of Alibre’s system for creating 3D Assembly images from Part ones. You need create each Part in place; but its 2D mode is very flexible for designing the whole thing.  Alibre is fine for copying old drawings as a CAD exercise, but that assumes you have both the plans and expertise. I don’t.

.

The drawing below shows what I am trying to achieve and why this method. It might not reproduce very well, being a screen-shot then converted from .png to .jpg form. The individual parts do not need much detailing on the General Arrangement; not all parts need be shown (e.g. connecting-rod one side, valve-gear the other). Nor does very part have to be drawn completely first: it is completed and located according to how the whole drawing develops.

I cannot create a 3D model of the whole machine in either package. So want to choose the better or easier at any stage for designing both the machine and its bits together. As this drawing progresses, I will be able to put the various parts in their right places.

 

I have found it far easier to export an Alibre sketch as a DWG file to TurboCAD; than vice-versa. TC opened it directly, and I did that for the expansion link in this drawing. Once I’d trimmed some extraneous stuff to make its image symmetrical, it was fairly easy to place it correctly above the crankshaft (right-hand end). The link-work on the left is more for geometrical construction purposes.

[Author]

Posts