Solid Edge CAD Conversion Pipeline Import/Optimize/Render/Convert Solid Edge 3D Data To All Major 3D File Formats & Animation Systems

The complete overview of this Solid Edge importer, its documentation and feature list can be viewed online here.

Overview

The Solid Edge import converter module allows geometry, hierarchy and materials (assembly data) to be imported from a running copy of the Solid Edge 3D solid modeling application. No intermediate files are used in the translation.

The Solid Edge importer can also read in native Solid Edge .par and .asm files. Thus, a resident copy of Solid Edge is not necessary to read in part and assembly files directly; this method reads in the "display list" polygon data contained in these files.

Solid Edge users primarily purchase NuGraf if they wish to make high resolution renderings of their datasets (as exemplified in the Okino customer image gallery). Whereas Solid Edge users will purchase PolyTrans (the little brother to NuGraf) to convert their Solid Edge parts and assemblies to all major animation programs and file formats, in particular 3DS MAX, Maya, Softimage, Lightwave and many others. NuGraf and PolyTrans are well established in these particular areas of speciality for Solid Edge users.

Fundamental Uses

Fundamental uses of our PolyTrans and NuGraf products to Solid Edge users since the introduction of Solid Edge in the late 90's have included:

• Moving complex Solid Edge assemblies into any and all major 3D animation packages to allow access to the plethora of excellent animation features from programs such as 3ds max, Maya, Softimage, Lightwave, Cinema 4D, and others.
  
  
• Direct import of Solid Edge assemblies from within the user interfaces of 3ds max and Maya via the special native PolyTrans-for-Maya and PolyTrans-for-MAX plug-in systems. These have been very popular conversion pipelines over the last 5 years to our customers.
  
  
• Once the Solid Edge data has been imported into PolyTrans or NuGraf it can be optimized, reduced in complexity, photo-realistically rendered (as well as have lights, cameras, materials, textures and uv-texture coordinates assigned) then re-exported to all major 3D file formats. Okino has been the recognized industry leader in 3D data translation and re-purposing for well over the last decade and a half.
  
  
• Import into Okino's own NuGraf package (elder and more complex version of PolyTrans) for faster and more accurate rendering + scene layout. This package has been refined over the last 16 years. Some of our favorite customer CAD renderings created with NuGraf can be found here.

Features of the Solid Edge Import Conversion System

• Import from a live running copy of Solid Edge, or from native Solid Edge .asm and .prt files on disk (no copy of Solid Edge required for this latter feature).
  
  
• Imports and retains: assembly hierarchy information and assembly names, as well as BREP structure of the source model (bodies and faces). Can query accurate vertex normals, uv texture coordinates and UV tangent vectors from Solid Edge directly.
  
  
• The quality of the model (the number of polygons) can be controlled when importing from Solid Edge (but not when importing from files directly on disk).
  
  
• If one part is instantiated N times in the Solid Edge assembly tree then this importer will recognize such a situation and use Okino's core database master/instance capability to import the part just once and instantiate it N times.
  
  
• The native PolyTrans plug-in systems for 3DS MAX (PolyTrans-for-MAX) and Maya (PolyTrans-for-Maya) have been refined since 1998 specifically for importing large CAD assembly models from Solid Edge. This has come about partly from our good software users, and also from the main Okino CAD programmers who have been specializing in CAD to non-CAD conversion software since 1988.
  
  
• A good number of important options that can be (optionally) set prior to import, to control most situations that could be encountered with Solid Edge data import. Many options have come about from end-user requirements or situations.
  
  
• Complete control over material parameter modification on an automatic basis. Many CAD systems like Solid Edge have basic material parameters (like color, ambient + diffuse shading coefficients, opacity, etc) but when they are transferred over to a rendering and animation system they often look "too bright" or "highly ambient". This can be expected and is quite normal. The material tweak parameters easily allow such saturated shading values to be automatically compensated.
  
  
• If you are importing the Solid Edge data into Okino's PolyTrans or NuGraf software then it is possible to "refresh" or "update" the scene data directly from Solid Edge without having to re-import the whole scene again.