Hello,
I work as a mechanical engineer and have to create a presentation of new developed parts for a customer. I want to use Blender to create some nice shots and animations of the parts. My problem is, that the parts are available as CAD-data only. With the software I have here in my office I can only export in Catia, Ideas or Iges format, but so far as I am aware blender only reads DXF, 3DS or VRML.
Is there any other way to import CAD-data?

Thanks in advance,
Carsten

It sounds like the software you are using is limited.
Off the top of my head I can name about 8 different file formats blender can open (with plugins) and export to many also.

DXF is a common CAD format (Though mainly used by Autocad) so mabe you could find a program to convert your files to DXF

Not much help am I

No, my software is not limited, but in the automotiv industry nobody uses AutoCAD. So there is not need for a DXF interface:-(. So I will seach for a
iges2dxf converter or have to code one!!

Thanks!!

OT:

Just out of curiosity, doublepanic, what software do you use?

Thanks,
Casey

I have the same question about the software you're using. I'm familiar with AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, Softplan, SolidWorks and ProE. I've been fortunate to be able to export to Blender from these with excellent results. Especially with SoftPlan architectural.

Ok, to be honest, I have to admit, not to work in the design department. I do FE analyses. We do get CATIA-Files from our customers. Due to the price of CATIA we do not have an installation. For a long time we used Hypermesh or IDEAS and now a software called CADFIX for conversion of the CATIA files to IGES. But all of these programs do not have an DXF-export interface, because DXF is very(!) unusual in the automotive industry. For our FE modelling we use our own software called EASi-Crash (www.easi.de/products - Is advertisement allowed in this forum? ). Unfortunately our software is only able to import and exoport IGES.
But now I realized that I am able to export vrml out of an other program. With it I can directly import my FE-models to blender, which saved me a lot of time!!!!
But what export format do You use when using Your CAD-software? Do all of these programs have an DXF-export or do You use an other way to import data to blender?

Hello,

I do mostly aerospace stuff, and here we use CV CADDS5 and Pro/E mostly. Since cv has almost 0 support for any format besides iges, we use pro for most of our im/exporting. We usually export to iges and step files, but I understand that pro exports a large variety of formats, including dxf.

PTC (makers of Pro/E) have a freeware (not open source ) product called Pro/Desktop Express which is a stripped down version of Pro/E. It can be used as a file format converter, and the supported formats include dxf and iges. Since you (doublepanic) have already solved your problem, I guess I am just posting incase other people have the same issues . Oh yeah, the link to Pro/Desktop is:

http://www.ptc.com/appserver/it/icm/cda/icm01_list.jsp?group=201&num=1&show=y&keyword=355

or visit www.ptc.com and click on "Products & Services" and then "Free Downloads" then "Pro/Desktop Express"

HTH,
Casey