Rhino/Aspire challenges

[bcondon]

I spend my life in Partworks but time to expand.

I purchased Aspire a year or so ago but not had the time
to play with it... I get to play now with a little time on my hand before i
start my new job (while doing consulting on other shopbit projects)

One of the projects that I have wanted to do it cut a new rudder and I
have talked about this before. The problem was that Partworks and Aspire
so not have a way of entering points so I was advised that Rhino would do that.

I just purchased Rhino as I am a student so this is new but here is what I am trying to do:

1. All my points are in Excel and I now have a text file with x,y,z data.
2. Import into Rhino to create POINT.
3. Used Curve (Polyline) through point, selected the points.
4. I saved the Rhino file as a DXF file and the normal 3dm file

5. Went to Aspire V2 , new file, set sizes
6. Import 3D objects and selected DXF file
7. I get LOAD Fail, check component file.

8> I plan on using aspire to do a rail sweep to taper the
rudder (fat at top and slip quickly near bottom)


So the question with Aspire, Partsworks, Rhino, am I experiencing
cockpit problems or is there a better way?

Thanks

Bob Condon

[chiloquinruss]

I don't know anything about Rhino but I use dxf files all the time in Aspire. It sounds like that Rhino might be inserting something in the header section of the dxf file that Aspire doesn't like. Do you get the Aspire error message right away or does the file run for a bit before the message? Russ

[cnc_works]

Knowing little about Aspire I can't contribute much on that end, however I have never had much luck using DXF files for 3-D. What other 3-D files does Aspire except?

I would probably do the whole thing in Rhino and import it as an STL file.

[billp]

Bob,
It's been a looooong time since I played with Rhino, but I think I remember that it actually HAD a "lofting" feature under it's "surface" menu. And I'm sure you know that they also have "Rhino marine plug ins" which might be applicable here.

[Brady Watson]

As Donn suggests - Export as an STL. Choose the Binary STL option. Then import into Aspire.

-B

[Mike Windsor]

make sure that when you export a curve from Rhino that it is on a working plane that corresponds to Aspires . --I've run into this before . The curve was fine in Rhino but when it came into Aspire I was looking down the top instead of the front . --If I was doing it I'd loft the rudder in Rhino and export the surface as an .stl file .

[erik_f]

check what version of AutoCAD you are saving your DXF as... I think Aspire only imports certain versions. Feel free to correct if wrong.

[bcondon]

Well the fun just does not quit!

In the end, I found that Rhino was intuitive and pretty easy to use. I ended up getting the points in, making a poly line, adding two rails, sweep with two rails and save as STL.

I found that I could use rhino to get the points in, make and save the polyline, export to DXF then to partworks to input. Save in partworks, go to Aspire to bring in Partworks object, add a couple of rails and then it lost the front of the wing.. grumble

I had trouble producing a tool file for half of it until I brought the surface into the working model ... otherwise I got a "no valid vectors have been selected"

Other than that, it was a boring day!


Bob Condon

[cnc_works]

You are right Mike, but as long as you work from the top plane (like you are looking down on the work with the default cplane set in Rhino) everything should work fine.