Hello! I’m new user of Rhino. Try to do reverse engineering for my hobby. I’ve model from next Engine scanner. Need help to convert in to parametric model that can be opened in Solid Works for modifications. Appreciate of any suggestions.
Mesh to nurbs reverse engineering is a very difficult process. There are a few plug-ins available to help you (check the resources page) but they tend to be expensive. There is also an informative document available on the Rhino wiki. http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/reverseengineering
One possible strategy is to start with a point cloud rather than a mesh, or extract the vertices of the mesh. Then use Patch to create a surface. Depending on what you are trying to model the process can range from simple to difficult to impossible.
If by parametric you mean the history of operations that constructs the object, you won’t get that from Rhino in SolidWorks, at least in the standard SolidWorks version.
Most solid modeling applications export what is commonly referred to as a “dumb solid”, meaning there is no parametric history.
You can still modify the object in SolidWorks, but you may need to build features based on the surfaces in the exported model, depending on how you need to modify it.
SolidWorks Professional has something called FeatureWorks, which can analyze an imported model and build parametric features. Check your SolidWorks license to see if you have the “Pro” version.
Thank you for reply! I have surface I did some work on polishing and Baffin up and simplify so on, After Next Engine scanner . I can open it in Rhino. but than I need to convert it some how to be able to open in SW as part or so?
I’m guessing that SW can also read the mesh file (either as 3dm or some other format) but you won’t get much done with it. So, yes, you need to somehow convert it from mesh to NURBS but that means building new surfaces over the mesh surfaces. As mentioned, that is not an automatic process and can range from simple to impossible.
I don’t know what your end result is, nor what your budget looks like. Have you read the wiki page? There is a link to a case study on that page [ScanCleanupRemodel]. You should go through that. Also look at the list of plug-ins that are available for Reverse Engineering. At the bottom of that list, there is a reference to the NextEngine 3D Scanner that you are using. Over on the nextengine site, you can see that they also provide additional software: CADTools and RapidWorks.
Thank you! I have received PDF file of Rhino process , for clean up the mesh , from scanner company support. Will try your suggestions .
Thank you! Will try Your suggestion about S.W. Professional.
Maybe you can try this plug-in : http://www.datakit.com/cad-convertors/rhino-to-parasolid/1773-rhino-3d-to-parasolid.html it can export from Rhino to Parasolid, so you can open it with SolidWorks.
There is also CrossManager, that converts 3dm files to sldprt : http://www.datakit.com/cad-convertors/rhino-to-solidworks-3d/67-3-0.html but it is a standalone software, not a plug-in.