SOLIDWORKS recognized this trend in the industry, and in 2018 significantly improved the functionality for importing STEP files by giving users two separate STEP importing engines incorporated into the standard version of the software. That being said, many of the tools and techniques presented could apply to working with other file formats.
This series of articles will focus on best practices to get the most from working with STEP files.
In real life, many end-users have no access to the original author of the neutral file, so they will have to use whatever they get. There are multiple articles describing preferences for the neutral file types you should demand from your customer. In real life, end-users have no access to the original author of the neutral file, so they will have to use whatever file format they get. File Types available under the File Open dialog in SOLIDWORKS.Įven though the CAD industry made huge steps forward in ensuring interoperability (for example, 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, NX Synchronous Technology, or the fact that SOLIDWORKS can open almost any native file created by other CAD systems), the STEP file is still the most used vessel for moving data from one CAD system to the other. MergeOBJ editor (old version) - Edits an OBJ file to combine all the different objects in it into one single object so there will be just one material for the whole thing.Figure 2. SeparateOBJ editor - Breaks an OBJ file exported from MoI v1 into smaller pieces and puts separate material assignments on each piece for import into programs that require that.
Since MoI v2 can control material assignments by assigning Styles, these are no longer necessary but are still included here for v1 users. These utilities were to help with MoI v1 which did not export material assignments to OBJ files. It's not needed anymore since MoI v3 now directly supports DXF file export. Announced on the forum here.ģdmCurves2DXF converter - This could convert curves in a 3DM file to a DXF file to be used for CAM programs. This was created because the freely available mesh editing tools have a tendency to remove vertex normals when combining files together, this utility will preserve vertex normals. This may be useful if you want to build up a set of different OBJ files possibly by exporting pieces with different mesh settings, and then combine them into one OBJ file if your target program wants to work with only a single file. This utility program can combine several input OBJ files into one single OBJ file. You can then load that 3dm file into MoI and use those line segments to snap on to. It will read all the polygon data from the obj file and convert the edges of polygons into line segments, and then write those line segments to the 3dm file. obj file to read, and after that the name of a. Unzip it to some folder, and then you can run the Obj23dmWireframe.exe program. obj file into MoI to use as a construction guide. This enables bringing polygon data in an.
Rhino6/7 3DM file format to Rhino5 3DM file format (MOI3D compatible) converterĭownload Convert3DMToRhinoV5 converter for Windowsĭownload Convert3DMToRhinoV5 converter for Macĭownload Obj23dmWireframe converter for Windowsĭownload Obj23dmWireframe converter for Mac Some standalone small programs to help accomplish specific tasks. Scooter tutorial from Mauro: YouTube channel Forum post Making accurate screw threads video from OSTexo
Videos: Functions of the Manual by Pilou ( in French) (Not really needed since Extrude now has a taper function good if you want to learn basic trig) D.T. Video on modeling a SpacePilot controller from lyesĪccurate tapers using Expressions by Danny Introductory videos by Tom Meeks - videos with narration covering a lot of basics. MoI for Game Assets video tutorial by Arrimus 3D - 5 hours $9.99 on Gumroad Tutorials for guitar modeling in MoI and Rhino and CNC productionĬar modeling techniques by Zarkow, and #2 and video tutorials Product design forums modeling challenges (not specific to MoI but useful for general CAD modeling strategy). Simple ring using sweep + scaling rail for more control Ring tutorial by Jesse Kaufman, and #2, #3, Tutorials by Mike Maynard, ( 18 of them in French by Pilou)
Introduction and overview PDF by Fabien Franzen MoI Basics video tutorial by Bojan Koturanović - 7 hours $25 on GumroadĤ8 German language video tutorials by Stefan Schneller on jewelry design Max Smirnov's MoI scripts, numerous advanced scripts from Max. Petr's MoI page, a variety of informations including scripts and custom commands.
( French) ( German) ( Spanish) ( Italian)īurr's script archive - collection of scripts posted on the forum Links to useful MoI information on the web ( French) MOI's site links