rickbern Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Thought I'd post this since I went through a bunch of permutations and we have a brand new forum... To export from formZ 7.x to Rhino 5.x with holes in solids, I found iges with the trimmed surfaces options to give me the cleanest import into rhino. I choose the export by layer option, which gives me a separate file to import for each layer. Hope I save someone out there a little time in the future! Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Hi Rick, I found in my own tests of FormZ's IO capabilities that STEP was the best option for exporting from FormZ to Rhino. You have a lot of flexibility with how the export handles grouping too. As long as the model you start with in FormZ doesn't contain any faceted elements you get a perfect parametric representation in Rhino for further manipulation. And because Rhino doesn't contain any normal based smoothing errors when exporting tesselated models to OBJ/3DS/DAE etc, it makes for a great translation utility for getting error free FormZ geometry into 3ds Max, Maya, Modo, C4D etc. For anybody on OS X, Rhino is still free to use as part of it's open beta program and likely to remain that way for many months to come. It's also more stable than many commercial products on the market so there's no substantial risk/added stress in using a beta product. http://www.rhino3d.com/mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setz Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 I exchange files with Rhino all the time. STEP consistently delivers excellent results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickbern Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Had trouble with Rhino recognizing step files. Sorry for the misdirection, I'll look again today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Had trouble with Rhino recognizing step files. Sorry for the misdirection, I'll look again today. Whatever works for you. The only thing with IGES to factor into the equation is that industry experts seem to be advising people to move away from the format as it's not very future proof. http://blog.grabcad.com/blog/2014/10/14/get-over-iges/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Hi Gentlemen, Yes, IGES is something of a dinosaur format and has a number of different specifications, so may not always give the "perfect" translation, but it does work "reasonably well." In general, we would recommend trying other formats first, as they are generally more reliable. STEP would also be our first choice, but DWG with the option: Facetted Objects as ACIS objects would likely be the second best option if you ever encounter an issue with STEP... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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