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Entities and attributes supported for import
The following table shows the entities and attributes that are supported for import from other CAD systems.
Assembly structure
Shared parts
Coordinate systems
3D notes
GD&T / 3D dimensions
Element attributes (color, transparency, density)
CATIA V4
supported (Detail/Ditto)
supported (Detail/Ditto)
supported
supported
not supported
part (base & instance), face, edge
Creo Parametric
supported
supported
supported
supported
not supported
part (base & instance), face, edge
I-DEAS
supported
supported
supported
supported
supported
face, edge
Unigraphics
supported
supported
supported
supported
supported
part (base & instance), face, edge
Unigraphics Parasolid
not supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
face
Solid Works Parasolid
supported
supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
face
Solid Edge Parasolid
supported
supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
face
Autodesk Inventor
supported
supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
part , face, edge
SAT
not supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
part (base), face, edge
STEP AP214/AP203
supported
supported
not supported
supported
not supported
part (base), face, edge
IGES
supported
supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
part (base and instance), face, edge
Granite
supported
supported
not supported
not supported
not supported
part (base and instance), face
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Each CAD system handles element attributes like color, transparency, or density differently. Some do not assign attributes at a part level, and some do not have a part structure at all. Not every system provides the expected color, when several colors are explicitly or implicitly assigned to a model element. For example, when a color is assigned to a part and a face of a body in that part, there are actually two colors assigned and the inquiry function may not provide the face color.
3D Dimensions
The import of native formats supports the import of 3D dimensions into Creo Elements/Direct Modeling. 3D annotations are created from these dimensions.
The following 3D dimensions are supported:
Linear (distance) dimensions
Angular dimensions
Radius and diameter dimensions
There are two types of 3D dimension import:
with model reference elements
without model reference elements
A model reference element is a face, edge or vertex within the model, one likes to do measurements on. The import with reference elements is best suited for the Creo Elements/Direct Modeling 3D Annotations, which depend on having model references. At the moment, the import of 3D dimensions with model reference elements is supported only for I-DEAS ANF models, exported with non IDI Mode.
When no reference elements are provided, the import is creating a special wireframe part, which contains vertices that are created as substitutes for the missing reference elements. This part is located directly under the root assembly node within Creo Elements/Direct Modeling and can thus be handled easily. At the moment, this mode is applied on models with 3D dimensions from
CATIA V4
Unigraphics (Expert Mode)
I-DEAS (IDI mode)
GD&T (Geometric Dimensions & Tolerances)
As a new functionality in CoCreate Modeling 2005, there is the support of the import of GD&T labels. At the moment, this is effectively supported only for I-DEAS with the Non IDI Translator option. A variety of different symbol types can be imported, such as:
Form (Straightness, Flatness, Circularity, Cylindricity)
Orientation (Angularity, Perpendicularity, Parallelism)
Location (Position, Concentricity, Symmetry)
Runout (Circular Runout, Total Runout)
GD&T Datums and Datum Target Symbols are also supported. The import of GD&T uses the label creation facilities of the Creo Elements/Direct Modeling 3D Documentation module. However, the imported symbols have no feature information. They are imported for viewing purposes only.
Restrictions for specific CAD formats
Granite
Granite fillet surfaces are converted into (rational) B-spline surfaces in Creo Elements/Direct Modeling.
Granite faces with n peripheral loops (where n > 1) are split into n connected faces in Creo Elements/Direct Modeling.
Granite bodies with n connected components (where n > 1) are split into n connected parts or bodies.
Datum axes, datum planes, datum points, or datum coordinate systems are not imported.
Facet data such as TriangleStrips, FacetVertices, and others are not converted (imported).
Creo Elements/Direct Modeling does not support the relative accuracy model of Creo Parametric. Creo Elements/Direct Modeling only supports absolute accuracy and uses the defined part accuracy for the imported Creo Parametric or Granite models.