3D dwgs for Mold company

[EricCamper]

I recently drew up a product and rendered an animation for a local inventor. THe files are being sent to a Mold company in China and they keep telling him that the files are 2D and not 3D. I figured it was a problem with the conversion, since they asked for AutoCAD 2008 DWGS, and I modeled it in Max 2010. So I exported then opened it up in AutoCAD 2008 and they are absolutely 3D. I have tried several other file types and the client is getting pissed. But of course this was NEVER part of the contract. I was to only draw and model the product and really kinda did the animation part for almost nothing. I just keep seeing the emails from the mold company telling him the files are ONLY 2D and that they need to be redone!! LOL.. Oh well... just a rant, but if anyone has any advice... Throw it my way... Thanx all..

Camper

[SnipeyX]

Do you know if they have any prior relationship with this mold company? Sounds like the mold company could just be trying to force him to agree to the extra cost that it will be since he "only supplied 2d". That, or if they are that incompetent then does he really want to bring his business there anyway? Seems strange...

Alternatively, are they saying it has to be a solid model versus polygonal?

[Neilg]

When I was reading that I thought it could just be a mistranslation and they need a watertight model. Might be worth asking.

[val2]

I believe you are both right. autocad can see a polygonal model as 3D. Download solidworks edrawings, it's a free viewer. it will more than likely show you what they are seeing. it won't see the polygonal model as a 3D model. It will only see solid models as 3D. I believe they are saying it has to be a solid model not a polygonal model. I've run into this before.

[glyph]

if you can export to stl file format it should be ok
(that is if the option is still available in Max)

[EricCamper]

Thanx all... I will try some of that... Here is the message from the mold maker, and NO, they have never worked with these people before, so good call. I was thinking the same

"I have transferred the files received today to the mold maker again, and they still informed the file is 2D drawing, not 3D. Which means they can read at your dimensions but they can not spin or rotate the drawing. So if it's necessary, then they need to re-build the 3D drawing and there will be another charge for that.

They are talking about if you can issue the file in "part" or "stp"? That seems be the initial file of 3D, then they will see if they can use that to develop."

[val2]

Ask them what software they are using. That will tell you what formats they can read (correctly) They probably can read IGS. I would be surprised if they can't. There is software out there to translate Mesh models into a nurbs file (STL to IGS) but it won't be great. what you will get is a bunch of facets not a smooth surface.

With a little effort on your part you can do this in MAX. You will need to turn your model into a spline cage then add a surface modifier to it, at this point you can convert it to a nurb. You can then save the nurb model as an IGS file. The problem with this method is if you haven't built the original mesh like a low poly game mesh it won't work well (as few vertices as possible and all quads)


Basically turning a mesh to a nurb is annoying. It's probably easier to re build a new model as a solid in a CAD program and save it out as a DWG.