Importing from Vellum

sketchy · 15 Mar 2008, 17:00

I have a friend who uses vellum to design insanely cool robots (which he actually builds) and wants some help bringing some files into SU and seeing how it fits into his workflow.

I have never used Vellum and am not familiar with what file extensions it supports. My friend wasn't infront of his computer but thought it would export .vc6 .dxf and .iges (not sure of the spelling on the last one).

Anyone have experience importing from Vellum or these extensions and any problems I might encounter? I do have AutoCad2004 if needed to use as a workaround tool. It would be nice to not need AutoCad since he doesn't have a copy.

Here is one of his robots (it also has functional flame throwers )

watkins · 15 Mar 2008, 18:01

Dear All,

Did a quick Google and came up with the importers/exporters for Graphite Vellum
• DWG/DXF (Up to 2007)
• PDF (Export Only)
• IGES
• EPS
• Spline (Import Only)
• ASCII Text
• Claris CAD (Import Only)
• BMP (Windows only)
• WMF (Windows only)
• PICT (Mac Only)

IGES (also STEP and SAT) are formats for file exchange between solid modelling programs (such as Pro/E, Solid/Works, Inventor etc).

There is a Wikipedia entry on IGES http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGES . There is even an IGES Preservation Society (see Wiki entry).

Regards,
Bob

Gaieus · 15 Mar 2008, 18:41

dxf seems to be a bridge - the latest build of SU supports version 2007 too.

sketchy · 15 Mar 2008, 22:13

thanks for the replies, he brought over his laptop and we found that it also does .dwg and there was no problem importing. His free version kept crashing and he is going to try reinstalling the program and see if that helps. I was able to import his files without problem.

Phil Rader AIA · 20 Mar 2008, 04:32

you should post some su output in the su gallery these machines might look cool as renderings.

sketchy · 20 Mar 2008, 14:40

My friend is mainly interested in using SU to work out a few things in 3D and told me he won't model the entire robot. But he may get pretty close and I may offer to finish it off. The current project is a 25' arm with hand that is controled by a user putting their own hand into a contraption. When the user moves their hand the robot hand mirrors the movement.

It will be able to lift a car off the ground and crush it! It is just going to be too much fun.