ProE, Best import method to allow parts to be moved

[sdesaulles]

Hi,

I've asked Luxion direct some weeks ago but they have not responded - perhaps because there is no answer, perhaps because they are working on it.  Having the ProE plugin is a great step forward, but for assemblies it does not allow individual parts to be moved relative to each other - so you have to 'explode' a model in ProE and then re-import - so you have to do all material allocation again etc.

separate part STEP files from a ProE assy seem to take ages to import to KS from ProE, and then don't import in the correct position even if their coordinate systems are identical in the ProE model.

So, has anyone figured out a method to import assemblies with any kind of 'intelligence' from ProE, in which case, please could you share it.

Thanks in advance.

Stephen

[Sam]

Dear stephen,

We requested the same, the import takes long because of the 32bit engine to import, this is been worked on to transfer this to 64bit if i'm not mistaking.

The exloded view is indeed needed to do in Pro/E. What i see in this as a advantage, and I think this is Keyshot strategy too: position your models explosion in Pro/E, save it as a model representation, on export you can select it and it will import as defined in Pro/E.

The only issue I see, is if you change your model, you need to reapply all materials.

[guest84672]

If you require to move parts, your best bet right now is to use STEP, IGES or OBJ and impart the parts one by one. We are looking into improving this for v2, but certainly not the initial release. We realize that this is a very important piece of functionality.

[itsterril]

I need a feature like this as well. Especially when we want to show alternative concpets, but maintain camera angles as well as common parts.

in version 2.0, I am in the understanding that you should be able to merge .bip files. If that is the case, my work around would be to creat a simp rep of the common parts and create a .bip file of that and save. Also creat simp reps of the mutible concepts and save thoes as indivudal bips as well. Then merge the bips together. I beleave that you will then be able to move compoents around (like you can via mergins other file types)

[guest84672]

correct. And also since we have the scene tree you can just turn the individual parts on and off. This will make it rather simple to show off different configurations.

[sdesaulles]

Hi, just checking back here and see some helpful replies, thanks.

But, no, exploding in ProE first is definitely not an advantage as just as you describe, if you want to move one part because of lighting etc then every material has to be reapplied.  Quite often you want to make a series of exploded views, to show, well, sort of a sequence of assembly etc, in which case, you have to reassign every material - really dull and a dreadful workflow, more like workdam and start again.

So, OK, if I import the parts separately, how on earth do I get them to share the same origin when they come into Keyshot?  Even though I build my ProE assemblies so that every part shares the identical assembly origin, the parts import all over the show in Keyshot - is there any way to control this?

Re the advice to use STEP IGES or OBJ, which is best? Pros and cons of any of these?  Which is quickest to import?  What represents 'best practice' please?

Thanks

Stephen

[itsterril]

now that i am running Keyshot 2 i am trying my theroy as stated above....

However i see that when using the ProE plug-in for indivual parts and saving bip files for each, then merging these bip files together, the scale is wrong.

Is there a way to set a scale? (so that parts come in the the correct placement relative to the other and the same size?)

It works if you import ProE files, however it is really slow, and i need to bring in only simp reps of thoes files, which i dont get that option to do using the import ProE feature....

any thougths?

[itsterril]

ok, i got a work around for this....

Make a simple box feature that encompasses the entire geometry and have that on each simp rep version. This would set the "bounding box" the same for each. when you bring this into Keyshot, save each file. Then when you have all your "parts" import them all together. Just turn off (or delete) the "bounding box" and all the parts align, or allow you to move them around the seen indavidually. Each import part has it own group in the Keyshot model tree. all parts are scaled together!