Import Solidworks 3D File Formats
In my company, product designers usually render from Solidworks, and we have to wait for product samples to complete ad photography.
I was hoping Felix could cut out the middle man, but today I found out that Felix supports no file types Solidworks can export. It kind of defeats the purpose of the program for my role.
If we could support any of these file types (obviously excluding PS, PDF's, and JPEGS). We want this specifically to take prototype models to photography level.
Donnine Canamar
shared this idea
Hello all! Excited to say we’re actively working on IGES, STEP and other CAD import formats. We’ll update soon here as we open up beta testing of these import options!
28 comments
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Nicole Schirck
commented
A Solidworks option would be amazing. I can export everything in STL like most have been saying, but the materials or detail in the object don't transfer. I have an engineer that designs the product with mesh like features, braided hose, etc., but they do not transfer into Dimension. Allowing me to stage the products in a pleasing render would be so so so helpful.
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@Jack we have grouping! Select your items then use shortcut Cmd/Ctrl + G or the menu option "Object Menu > Group".
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LarCart
commented
Our company has a similar workflow, and the "waiting for product samples" part sometimes took too long or never happened. So I have started using Dimension to create photo renders from Solidworks. I found a converter called "CAD Exchanger" that can convert Solidworks (SLDPRT or SLDASM) to Obj format, and there are many other formats it can convert from/to also. So the engineers send me the model, I convert it, pull it into Dimension, tag the surfaces with the proper materials, and generate the photo render.
Personally, I don't see why Adobe doesn't just license the converter API from CAD Exchanger and then they wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel trying to come up with their own import/export, and they could focus their time/energy on the "value added" parts of Dimension that improve rendering speed, quality, and ease of use.
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Jack Sutcliffe
commented
I exported each body as an STL from Solidworks then imported each one separately into dimension. I didn't move then till after all of the bodies was imported. They kept their position in space in relation to each other and i was able to select them all and move them about. Having a group option would be great.
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Matt Martin
commented
Echoing the other requests for Solidworks support. I have to use Solidworks Visualize (Windows only) and it the interface control is terrible.
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Andy
commented
Need to add SolidWorks compatibility, please!
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Jesse Cox
commented
Most product designers need to import SolidWorks or Rhino files into render engine. The fact that this program has no option for that means operating in an amateur environment. Would not consider using it till it supports the type of files it needs to.
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Noamanali Momin
commented
solidworks model import?
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Anonymous
commented
STL is not a great format for 3d rendering. It doesn't support explicit normals so the smoothing from your solidworks/cad models will be screwed up in the render, depending on the complexity of your surfaces. For basic primitives it doesn't matter that much, but for more complex surface models like vehicles etc you want to retain perfect smoothing. STL is mainly used for 3d printing and CNC where high tesselation is most important.
STEP files is a much better format for cad models. It's a universal format for NURBS/cad models and almost all cad packages can export it. I would prefer STEP format because then you could export from Inventor, Catia, Fusion360, NX, Rhino and Solidworks and render it in Dimension/Project Felix.FBX format support would also be nice, since this is a common exchange format for games and models used in computer graphics/animation. Unfortunately most CAD packages (Solidworks, Catia, Inventor etc) don't have FBX export built in yet.
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Matthis de Wit commented
I'm doing it like this and it works pretty well:
1. Save assembly to STL in seperate files
2. Open Microsoft 3D builder (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/3d-builder/9wzdncrfj3t6)
3. Create a new scene
4. Drag and drop all your STL's into the new scene, it will stay assembled
5. Save as OBJ-file
6. Import in Adobe Dimension (Project Felix)
7. Now you have an folder with the seperate parts fully alignedHope this helps some one,
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Seth
commented
This is how you can export from Solidworks to pull into project felix guys. Props to the person who wrote this article. Now we don't have to deal with Solidworks photoview 360. This will also work with those of you that already have .stl files.
https://grabcad.com/tutorials/how-to-convert-solidworks-file-to-obj
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Thanks for the comment mads! Project Felix is currently English only and we are working on localization support now. Should be resolved in a future build. Feel free to post these as new ideas/requests in the future.
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Anonymous
commented
Just a comment: Scandinavian letters: æøå doesn't seem to be supported in filenames - Felix does nothing when trying to import. Renamed to english letters and problem was solved.
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Anonymous
commented
Please do! The reason I installed Felix was to generate photorealistic renders of CAD models. The ability to import STL files would be amazing!
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.obj is the only supported file type. The new release for 0.2.0 correctly filters in the File > Import menu.
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Anonymous
commented
Can you publish a list of what 3d file types that are supported?
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Anonymous
commented
Solidworks support would be great. STEP, IGES, STL would also be nice.
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Anonymous
commented
Please accept more file types! If this could work with fusion 360/ solid works/ rhino that would be amazing.
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Kevin Wong commented
We design products in SolidWorks and it would be great if we could import SolidWork SLDASM and SLDPRT files. Or STEP Exchange files.
Alternatively support PDF 3D like in Acrobat 9 Pro Extended which we use for preparing 3D content for distribution.
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Anonymous
commented
So I can't export to stl? :( No 3d printing for me