Exporting Objects to 3D CAD Formats
With a license for LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS® you can export 3D geometry objects to the ACIS® (version 2016 1.0), IGES (version 5.3), Parasolid® (version 37.0), and STEP (version AP203) formats. To do this:
•
right-click the Geometry node and select Export (), or
•
in the Geometry toolbar click Export ().
Then, in the Export window, the File type list, select Parasolid binary file, Parasolid text file, ACIS binary file, ACIS text file, IGES file, or STEP file. Use the Browse button to choose the filename, or enter a filename including the path in the Filename field.
Next, select Export entire finalized geometry to export the resulting geometry of a Form Union or Form Assembly operation. Alternatively, select Export selected objects, then from the Selection list, choose Manual (default) to select the objects you want to export in the Graphics window. Click the Activate Selection button to toggle between turning ON and OFF the selections. Alternatively, choose All objects to select all objects or choose All nonconstruction objects to automatically select all objects that have not been marked as Construction Geometry. If the geometry sequence includes user-defined selections above the currently built node, these will also be available in the Selection list.
The following limitations apply when exporting geometry objects to the 3D CAD formats mentioned in this section:
•
Geometry objects that are created from mesh cannot be exported.
•
Geometry objects that are the result of virtual geometry operations that come after a Form Union or Form Assembly node in the geometry sequence cannot be exported. The finalized geometry resulting from the Form Union or Form Assembly node is exported instead.
•
Geometry objects created with a license for the ECAD Import Module from ECAD files imported with the options Ignore vertices with continuous tangent and Eliminate short edges cannot be exported. In this case the exported geometry objects contain the vertices and edges removed by the import.
COMSOL objects are automatically converted to CAD objects before saving the file.
For details on which objects can be converted to CAD objects see Converting Objects to CAD Kernel Representation.
To export the geometry to the specified file, click the Export () button. A confirmation message appears in the Messages window.
Advanced
When exporting to an ACIS file format choose the ACIS file format version. Available versions are 4.0, 7.0, 2016 1.0 (default).
For the Parasolid, IGES, and STEP file formats select a Length Unit. A unit conversion is carried out when the selected unit is different from the length unit of the geometry. A unit conversion is not done for the default From geometry option.
The Parasolid binary and text formats do not allow coordinate values larger than 500. Therefore you might have to change the export unit in the Length unit list box to be able to export the geometry.
For the Parasolid file formats the option Split in manifold objects is selected by default to make sure that the exported geometry objects are manifold objects. A nonmanifold object is, for example, a solid with an interior boundary that separates two domains. When exported using this option the solid is split along the interior boundary into two separate objects. When exporting to the ACIS, IGES, and STEP formats nonmanifold objects are always split.