SolidWorks

[YoyoBoy]

So the Max SolidWorks importer won't work unless you have a copy of SolidWorks running in the background. If I had a copy of SolidWorks I wouldn't need the dang importer because I could just export to STEP format.

We were told that the engineer at the company we're working with can't be bothered with such things right now.

Does anyone know a (preferably free) way to import SolidWorks files into Max? AutoCAD 2013 rejects the files we were given, so I assume they were created using the latest version.

[samuel_bubat]

Okino Nugraf/Polytrans, Power Translator Pro and Rhino should be able to import/convert Solid Works files. None of them is for free.
I´d really bother the customer once again. It´s 30sec. of time to write out a STEP. But I know it can be quite challenging sometimes
to get a half decent file from an engineer

[Wilyman]

Maybe download a trial of Rhino.
The full version of Rhino can open Solidworks and export Step, so I assume the trial version can too.

Cheers,

John

[YoyoBoy]

Thanks for the replies.

I solved the problem with the 14-day trial of a program called "3D-Tool." It doesn't export to any BREP formats, but I messed with the settings and got a very high-poly model out of it. The Normals came in kinda weird, but I solved that problem by putting two Normal modifiers on the objects (both set to flip).

[YoyoBoy]

Oh, and I think it's more that the person we're in contact with can't be bothered with asking the engineer for things.