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I've got a drawing part made of mostly cylindrical pieces and I want to model it in ProE. Does anyone know of a way to load the drawing into a sketch so I can clean it up and protrude it as a rotation in ProE?
You can import a dxf into a drawing and then delete idividual lines. I usually set up a variable drawing format that is the same height as the part I am making and import the dxt to fit the page. You can copy and paste imported drawing entities to different sheets also.
Once you have your sketch, you can export an iges (as splines) file that you can import back into a part file. Remember that the lower left hand corner of the drawing will be you 0,0,0 point when you import the sketch into a part, so you may want to move the sketch entities to that corner.
You can sketch over or use the imported geometry. I usually sketch over it (with out making a dependency) because something will change.
There are many ways to import and export files. I'm not sure what is the best way. I usually get different results depending on where the dwg/dxf file came from.
If you are using Wildfire, I would suggest you try downloading and installing AutobuildZ. I've used it successfully on some tough sheetmetal parts. It allows you to define and relate the views of 2D parts and then model them in 3D using a wizard-type interface.
You can import DWG format directly into sketcher. Why they chose this rather than the more universal DXF I can't say. You have to have intent manager turned on to do this. Another questionable programming choice since chances are you don't want intent mangler to change the imported geometry. You can get around some of it's destructive power by dropping the imported data away from any reference lines and then moving the sketch to a more logical location as part of the dimensioning process. Something I haven't tried yet but I think has promise is to open the dialog box that allows you to pick which constraint types to use and unchecking all of them.
peterbrown77, what version of WF and Autobuildz have you managed to get to work? I haven't gotten it to work with any real world parts. Be aware the PTC offers no tech support for Autobuildz because I was told it's a free plug-in.
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