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Simplifying design collaboration for AutoCAD users

In today’s product development cycle, new projects are often not initiated from scratch. Usually, they are based on an existing design. And more often than not, this legacy data may be stored as a 2D CAD drawing in the .DWG format (i.e., created in AutoCAD®), which now needs to be used in SolidWorks® 3D mechanical design software. In addition, many SolidWorks users still use AutoCAD, unaware of how SolidWorks can help turn these files into useful documents in a design collaboration environment.

The drawing on the left contains many types of entities, as well as various layers, colors, and line styles. However, once brought into the SolidWorks Drawing module, everything translated perfectly (image on right).

Import tools
The first tool that SolidWorks employs for 2D compatibility is perhaps one of the industry’s best DWG/DXF™ import capabilities. The AutoCAD drawing in Figure 1 not only has multiple layers, line styles, and colors, but also has complex splines and other entities. As reflected in Figure 2, in only a few seconds it was imported into the SolidWorks Drawing module without any geometry problems, while also maintaining all the layers.

DWGeditor
For many users, it is often necessary to edit a drawing after importing it. While this has always been possible in SolidWorks, version 2005 adds a program called “DWGeditor,” which allows users to edit these files natively.

Using the intuitive SolidWorks 2005 DWG/DXF Import wizard (see Figure 3), a file is opened directly into DWGeditor. Once there, a user who is experienced with AutoCAD can easily edit the drawing by using familiar commands, as shown in Figure 4. This is because the DWGeditor is designed with the same look and feel of the AutoCAD interface. Since DWGeditor software’s native format is DWG, you can open and save any native AutoCAD file (V2.5 through 2005) without file conversion.

The SolidWorks DWG/DXF Import wizard makes it easy to determine how to use a 2D CAD file (figure 3, left). The file on the right (figure 4) was brought into the SolidWorks DWGeditor, where changes can be made by using commands that look and feel like those found in AutoCAD.

Going from 2D to 3D is easy
Design sketches and assembly layouts may represent the first step of a consumer product or machine design; and if they exist in AutoCAD, SolidWorks can use them as the foundation for 3D geometry. For instance, the aforementioned DWG/DXF Import wizard also allows such a file to be imported directly into the SolidWorks sketcher – from there, it can easily be turned into a 3D model. If there are any problems inherent in the drawing or caused by the translation, the SolidWorks Repair tool will automatically fix these problems in the sketcher. In addition, if the drawing contains multiple views, SolidWorks tools will semiautomatically project that 2D geometry into the third dimension.

SolidWorks software includes several tools to simplify the building of assembly layouts. First, SolidWorks deals with imported geometry as separate entities. This makes it easy, for instance, to delete AutoCAD geometry that’s not necessary in building the desired model. It’s also simple to select only the entities that you need, and then use the ability with SolidWorks to automatically copy them into a separate sketch in just two clicks. SolidWorks also simplifies the selection of certain elements via its advanced Selection Filters.

eDrawings allows you to communicate design ideas via a variety of tools.

eDrawings

When you need to share 2D files, you usually translate the 2D drawings from program to program, hoping that data isn’t lost in the process. However, even if the translation works without a hitch, there’s more to a design than the geometry, and that’s where eDrawings™ comes in.

An email-enabled communications tool, eDrawings allows you to publish files that can be read by anyone with a free viewer. If you don’t want to burden the recipient with downloading the viewer, it can actually be embedded within the eDrawings file.

In addition to being compact, what also makes an eDrawings file such a powerful communications tool is its ability to help you better understand a 2D drawing that they have never seen before. This is done through a variety of capabilities , such as animation, hyperlinking, and drawing layout – a function that lets you open individual views in a drawing and arrange them as desired. Once the 2D drawing revives, you can rotate, move components, measure, and better understand the drawing. eDrawings can be published from all major CAD applications, such as SolidWorks and AutoCAD, ensuring proper design communications no matter where the data originates. What’s more, eDrawings also supports 3D models.

Conclusion
For AutoCAD users, SolidWorks is a complete design communications tool that allows them to extract whatever they need from the 2D data. Whether importing a 2D AutoCAD file or using eDrawings to communicate changes and ideas, SolidWorks has the perfect tools to make it happen with ease.

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Learn about DWGseries — a set of FREE software tools created for current and former AutoCAD users to open, edit, and share DWG data more effectively with others.