I wanted to ask if there is a trick to export a rhino file to step with blocks and groups.
whenever I export my file and import it back into rhino I have solids but no group/block definitions whatsoever.
In addition I ask I someone of you is experienced in data exchange with CATIA - when I get a step from catia it seems I get a lot of conflicts with blocks and only some parts are shown correctly.
when I get a allcatparts-step it works fine but no blocks…
Hope someone can help me or lead me in the right (if there is one) direction.
When you make blocks from your Rhino objects, exporting those to STEP and then importing them back into Rhino will keep the blocks. A new top-level block will be created that you can get rid of by using the Explode command on that top-level block.
HTH,
-wim
Depends a bit on the Catia version and the Step versions. But blocks and instances on rhino will be converted to parts and assemblies in STEP. Coming from STEP parts and assemblies will become blocks and instances.
There are settings on the Rhino import to defeat this behavior if blocks are not wanted, but then an export back out will not include separate parts.
This is a model with a few parts and assemblies in it to see how the Catia imports it: carbody.stp (4.1 MB)
I found the ONE culprit - when opening the step I need to use “replace with imported block” rather than “keep both blocks” which gives me more geometry
BUT there is still stuff missing compared to the allcatpart file which then is only single parts and no blocks.
may I send you the files private for investigation?
perfect, thank you - Ill send you the files in a DM.
do you perhaps know the tolerance? maybe when I setup my file in rhino to the same tolerance it works better?
in addition do you know of a way to transport meshes in “engineering”-formats? bc. when I want to export them in step or igs it says you can’t export meshes - there is no universal format for this?
Meshes are much more troubling as they are not reallya solid geometry type.
DXF is probably the best for meshes, although not every program will import them.
Most of the time in an engineering situation the meshes must be converted to NURBs. This is especially challenging if the object is supposed to be smooth, but the mesh only represents.a bunch of flat faces.