Converting Solid Designer Assemblies over to Solid

[Ty Weaver]

Does anyone have any good suggestions on how to transfer solid designer assemblies over to Solid Works. Our machine shop uses Solid Works. I currently do each individual member in STEP and then send a united file in STEP. When I STEP out an entire assembly, the parts go everywhere when the shop loads them up in Solid Works. Heeeeelp! This takes way too much time and I am sure there is a better way. Also, does anyone know how to maintain the part names through the translation? I do a lot of sheet metal stuff w/ lots of pems, southco latches, etc and my part names are the part numbers of these pieces. This makes generating a BOM very easy but the shop loses this info in the translation. Ty

[Bob Robbins]

I feel your pain. We too do alot of sheet metal stuff w/ pems, southco parts and latches. When we send our files to the sheet metal house, we supply them only with the sheet metal model without the hardware. We identify each hole in the sheet metal with a letter which coresponds with a parts list identifying which part goes in the hole. I also give then an iges or sat file (since they use Autocad) of the whole assembly just for them to get a visual of everything together. The iges file we produce for each part is a wireframe not a surface.

[Doug Blanding]

I think your problem stems from saving "each individual member in STEP". Instead, save the top assembly in STEP. The assemblies contain part position information. Your result will be better and it will be easier too. I routinely use STEP to save and load assemblies.