Home > Products > DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER > Help > Introduction

DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER - AutoCAD DWG file import plug-in for Pro/ENGINEER

DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER is an AutoCAD DWG file import plug-in for Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire. It gives Pro/ENGINEER the ability to import mesh objects from AutoCAD DWG files as solids models in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire.

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire already has the ability to read AutoCAD DWG files. However, when importing DWG files into Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3D mesh objects are ignored. DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER gives Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire the ability to read 3D mesh objects in an AutoCAD DWG file and import them as solid bodies in a Pro/ENGINEER part document. A polygon mesh in a DWG file is comprised of a set of triangular and quad faces. DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER creates trimmed planar surfaces for each triangle and quad and knits them together to create a solid body. If the polygon mesh is closed (i.e. it does not contain boundary edges) then DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER will create a closed body feature, otherwise an open surface will be created.

DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER is very easy to use. Once installed, it must be loaded into the Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire environment. Follow the simple instructions in the "ReadMe" document which can be found in the installation folder. Once loaded, it adds new commands to Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire and a submenu called "DWGImport" to the Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire menu.

DWG Import for Pro/ENGINEER comes with detailed documentation as well as a tutorial to get you started in the shortest possible time.

If you need any additional information please contact SYCODE.



The DWG File Format

DWG is a format used for storing two and three dimensional design data and metadata. It is the native format for the AutoCAD Computer Aided Design package, as well as IntelliCAD (and its variants), and PowerCAD. DWG is supported non-natively by several hundred other software applications.

DWG (denoted by the .dwg filename extension) was the native file format for the Interact CAD package, developed by Mike Riddle in the late 1970s, and subsequently licensed by Autodesk in 1982 as the basis for AutoCAD. From 1982 to 2007, Autodesk created versions of AutoCAD which wrote no less than 18 major variants of the DWG file format, none of which it publicly documented.

The DWG format, has become a de facto standard for CAD drawing interoperability. It has been estimated that there are in excess of two to four billion DWG files in existence.



 

Please feel free to call or email us for more information about AutoCAD DWG file import plug-in for Pro/ENGINEER