Design drawings in a CAD system are of course primarily geared to the design circumstances and production procedures for the machine parts. This can mean that the scope and execution of such drawings do not necessarily meet specifications for creating documentation illustrations.

Described below are some important factors that should be considered before converting CAD data into illustrations:

The design process usually involves products from third-party suppliers. This is especially true in the case of engines, pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics, and standard parts. Ideally, CAD drawings should depict all the relevant parts in their entirety. If the parts are merely hinted at by a placeholder or are missing altogether, they then have to be drawn manually in the completed 2D illustration.

It is worthwhile making all necessary preparations in the CAD system so as to ensure that a 3D file contains only the assemblies or parts that are needed to create the illustration. To this end, it is best if the design drawings for a machine or unit are available split into their various assemblies. This makes it easy to use data for spare parts drawings and operating instructions illustrations.

If it is not possible to prepare the data in this way, Arbortext IsoDraw CADprocess allows users to select the necessary assemblies during import and load only these. Further information on this can be found under Import Settings.

Arbortext IsoDraw CADprocess offers three formats for the structured import of 3D CAD data – IGES, VRML, and Wavefront. In our experience, loading data in IGES format produces the best results. If there is no particular reason for using one of the other formats, CAD system data should therefore be exported to IGES format.

To ensure the IGES files contain all the information required by Arbortext IsoDraw CADprocess, it is important that the correct settings are adopted for the conversion process.