Michael,
Along these same lines, it doesnt appear styles (or colors) are going with step and iges files. Is this intentional? am I missing something or is it something you plan at some points. My CAM package uses the Harmonyware translators also, and we have the same issues.

Hi Burr, actually colors are being written to IGES format currently.

For example I made this setup in MoI and then exported to an IGES file:



That IGES file then loaded into Rhino looks like this:



Loaded into ViaCAD looks like this:



Loaded into CoCreate looks like this:



Which program are you trying to import the IGES file into? Are you sure that it supports reading in colors?

I'm not quite sure about STEP, I'll take a look at that.

- Michael

Hi Michael,
I did make a mistake. The program I was refering to is BobCad and it doesnt read in the colors.

The reason (and mistake) I made with MoI was I did a test and didnt think it was writing the colors in.

My test was a cube and I gave each of the faces a color and exported, then brought it back in and the cube was the default color! I thought it was not writing colors.

On further review, since you showed it is, I recreated the cube with colors. As seperate surfaces, the cube exports out and back in with all the colors. If I join it back to a solid, then export and import back in, the cubes entire color is that of the ground plane color! (apparently in my tests, that must have been the face I left at the default color) So on import, the entire cube was the default color.

Anyway, if I leave the surfaces seperate, the colors are going back and forth.

Hi Burr, yeah several different things relating to IGES may not be expecting to work with a single solid getting joined up made up of multiple different colors within it.

Currently when MoI writes out an IGES file it will only write out the single color assigned to the parent object and not colors for individual sub-objects within a joined solid.

Maybe I can look at tweaking this in the future but I'm not so sure that you're going to find it widely supported to get a solid joined result that still has those different colored faces within it.


Having faces with individual colors within a single object is more widely supported in mesh formats so that does work fine with OBJ or LWO exports.

- Michael

Hi Michael,
Yeah, it's not something needed I found in a workflow of any kind. Only that I made the mistake and was thinking MoI wasnt writing those colors out. Now that I know it does, I am clear on what is happening.

Thanks again.

Hi Michael T,

Here's another version with the mesh reduced to about the maximum 3D-Coat will allow.
Hopefully this will allow you to do what you're after with it.
But if you need something else with regards to this, then maybe it's best to PM me from here on.

So based on what Michael G has already previously written, I now understand that what I wanted to do wasn't really practical as a workflow.

I'm seeming to find that the style of models I get asked to make, draws me into something that requires a combination of CAD style NURBS & Sub-D work.
I already know what the perfect solution is...buy myself ClayTools or FreeForm from SenAble. http://www.sensable.com/index.htm
But as I'm now doing work more as a "Hobbyist/Jewellery Modeler", I can't justify spending anywhere near that kind of money, even for their basic package.

So I'll just keep battling along trying to develop myself alternatives that'll give me a good workflow for those oddball & sometimes difficult jobs I seem to score.

regards Colin

Michael,
"I'm not quite sure about STEP, I'll take a look at that."

According to the help file in Solidworks, STEP AP203 does not handle colour information. Whereas STEP AP214 does handle colours.
Of course there are a bazillion STEP APs so I don't have a clue about the rest, all I know is 203 is very common and 214 is sort of common too.

Thanks Colin for the new file. I'll check it out and let you know what I come up with.

Thanks Michael G. for the clarification regarding nurbs vs. polygon geometry treatment. I only use these crossovers for reverse engineering purposes for non-exact geometry extractions.

Thanks again,

Michael T.

Hi Kevin,

> According to the help file in Solidworks, STEP AP203 does
> not handle colour information. Whereas STEP AP214 does
> handle colours.

It sure would be nice if STEP was not as confusing as government bureaucracy tax forms... :)

Just to make things a little more confusing there is apparently a "second edition" of AP203 that increases overlap with AP214: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_10303



I seem to remember that there was actually a bug fixed in the HarmonyWare STEP exporter for color information that was causing NX4 to crash when it read it in, so at least at one point colors were going into STEP files out of MoI but I'm not sure if this has possibly changed with an update of the HarmonyWare libraries.

- Michael

Hi Colin,

I finally generated the MoI file from your OBJ file, unfortunately even zipped up it is over 31MB. I'll see if I can get it smaller to post here.

Regards,

Michael T.

Hi Michael T,

Glad to hear you've managed to do something with the second version.

If you want, maybe the other option might be to send it to me via YouSendIt as it's FREE for up to 100MB?
http://www.yousendit.com/

If that idea appeals to you then just PM me for my contact details.

regards Colin