Hi Michael,

>is it possible for you to send me the 3DM model file with that one rod piece in it that you're showing there?

Attached.

>...generating 107187 polygons for that one piece definitely seems excessive.

As you noted earlier, it is the curved surfaces. Boxy shapes and 3D forms are more efficient.

>Also why is it generating polygons in addition to lines, is it trying to do some kind of 2D shaded fill effect >with 2D polygons? Maybe there is a way for you to switch that part of the 2D generation off so that you >only >get the lines?

>I mean does it take your IGES import and then immediately dice it up into a bunch of triangles right when >you do the import?

The IGES file import is a full 3D model in VW and with boxy forms, triangles. VW 3D to 2D conversion offers fill (hidden line rendering) or no fill, aka wireframe. Wireframe = manual clean up while the other is fast and there is a manipulatable isometric with the bare minimum of lines as the product.

As you predicted, a sphere from MOI via IGES generates a complex 2D result using the hidden line rendering method vs. the wire frame (pics attached). So, yes, how the IGES curved surfaces are worked in VW is key.

I was hoping I had missed a MOI/IGES on-off switch, dial, slider, radio button or whatchamacallit that would help or that some bright spark would have a bypass. Alas, it is not to be.

Thanks,

Leonard

I had a quick look at ViaCad just now and will need to check it out a bit more.

Leonard

Hi Leonard, thanks for attaching that rod model. I took a look at it closely and I do not see anything out of whack or unusual about it in any way, so I don't think there is anything you could do on the MoI side to change what you are seeing.

Since you also see that excessive density with just a regular sphere as well, as far as I can tell it's a problem that VectorWorks has with curved surfaces in general. You would need to contact them about improving that or modifying that behavior. Maybe there are some settings available that would allow you to adjust the density downwards somewhat - if those exist they are going to be settings on the VectorWorks side though that controls the behavior of their drawing generation mechanism. Since it's a mechanism in VectorWorks that needs adjusting there won't be any settings on the MoI side that you would use to affect that.

- Michael

Hi Michael, thanks for your help and I will check in with VW. If there is any news, I'll post here for VectorWorks users.

One final note, the problem might be the IGES>VW AND SAT>VW conversion. The images below are a VW-generated sphere (same 6" rad. as previous) and it results in about 85% fewer objects and 70% fewer lines in the final object.

Thanks for a great product.

Leonard

Hi Leonard, check what kind of entity is created for the VW-generated sphere, does it really construct a truly curved NURBS sphere or does it make a set of polygons arranged in the general shape of a sphere? I would think it's likely the latter and that is probably the key difference.

Does VectorWorks also import polygon mesh data? If so maybe you should try exporting out from MoI as a polygon mesh object type (like .obj or .3ds formats for example) rather than as NURBS data, maybe that will tame things down.

- Michael

Hi michael,

again you are my hero. we get some unfinished cad-files from our customers to build virtual prototypes. It's a borring job to prepare and tesselate those files. I asked you a long time ago to colorize each meshgroup. You gave me a solution and with this help we can really quick import tose models into our software. The only bad thing are this double meshes. After i deactivated the "join surfaces" in your import option everything is fine.You saved us a lot of time and trouble.THANKS THANKS THANKs:)

Have an nice day.
Crydee

Hi Michael, we have, I believe, a happy ending.

Following up on your last post I tried VW Preferences>3D>3D Conversion Res set to medium (was "very high") and it worked! I had no idea, and no mention in the manual, that it applied to IGES and SAT imports.

The ceiling isometric was a good test for MOI working with VW, ergo clear sailing from here.

Thanks for hanging in there with me on this.

Leonard

Hi Leonard, that's great news that you found a setting in VectorWorks to reduce the excessive density! Thanks for reporting that back here as well, that can help other people who might be using MoI and VectorWorks in combination in the future as well.

- Michael