[Sidefx-houdini-list] CAD to Houdini
Jerry
jerry at topix.com
Mon Oct 2 10:01:47 EDT 2006
If you have maya, there is a route you can go which i've used a couple
of times.
I've never tried it with trimmed surfaces though, but i'm sure there's a
workaround if you can separate the
trims out.
Anyway it goes something like this.
Open the surfaces in U and V in maya, then convert to poly. export as an
obj. Load obj into houdini then
convert to nurbs and close in U and V.
Is a bit cumbersome, but i've found it works pretty well.
Hope that helps
Jerry
John Coldrick wrote:
>On Monday 02 October 2006 09:19, Peter Robbinson wrote:
>
>
>>I would try the .iges route next. That format is more closely associated
>>with CAD conversions and there are usually more options for
>>them to control the conversion.
>>
>>
>
> You'll need two things for this - possibly three. We've just been through
>this and ended up with(unfortunately) polys because we didn't have a lot of
>control or time over the source files(originally ProE). We got Polytrans,
>which is great, but while it reads ProE files natively, that won't help you
>get it to an IGES format readable by Houdini(esp with trim surfaces). You
>need to get IGES files saved out by whatever program is being used to design
>the files, then run them through Polytrans, which has it's strength in being
>able to beat up any of the hundreds of mangled IGES variants out there(and
>there are hundreds). Unfortunately, I'm not sure you'll be able to take
>advantage of exporting into an IGES file readable by Houdini - you'll need to
>import directly into Maya(!) because that's the only one they support
>directly. Getting it from Maya to Houdini may be troublesome in itself.
>
> Bottom line, it's a bitch. It *really* depends on the flavour of IGES, and
>as mentioned the state of that format is a mess when going between packages.
>You might try IGES and it will work first time. It probably won't.
>Importing IGES trim surfaces from Polytrans directly into Houdini resulted in
>a mess. Everyone complains about Houdini's handling of IGES, but after this
>experience, at least I understand why. The main guy at Polytrans has been
>focused heavily on IGES for many years - it's a full time job.
>
> Personally, I'd like to get the Polytrans guys talking to SESI, not sure when
>that will happen though. They're right here in town, guys. :)
>
> Cheers,
>
> J.C.
>
>
>
>
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