Export files with virtual components to a different file format for the shop floor?

[berg_lauritz]

Right now we are playing around on how to improve the experience of viewing 3D models for our shop floor.

Currently we use .sldprt/.sldasm files & view them with eDrawings - which is kind of too slow.

We want to export those into a different file format (Edit: We convert through PDM automatically. We use the convert task for this) and are experimenting. When exporting to the native .easm format from eDrawings, all virtual parts will be converted into .eprt files, which is too time consuming to do every time & it does not seem to have any effect on the .easm file. [Edit: for whatever reason this was within PDM per default. We commented those lines and now it works properly!]
The biggest benefit for us is to have display states implemented into this file format. But maybe there is a better way?

What do you do?
What 3D model do you offer to the shop floor? What are the draw backs?

[zwei]

Currently we use .sldprt/.sldasm files & view them with eDrawings - which is kind of too slow.

Do you need to perform any measurement with edrawings?
Personally i find it much faster to view file in html than edrawing (6s to open in html vs 30s to open in edrawing for the first time), especially if you are only viewing ONE file occasionally, the time it take to launch edrawing is rather long on my machine (3D PDF is a disaster for me).
The downside is that the html need to be converted from edrawing, and the file size is much much larger

When exporting to the native .easm format from eDrawings, all virtual parts will be converted into .eprt files, which is too time consuming to do every time & it does not seem to have any effect on the .easm file.

My memory with edrawing is abit rusty, but when you convert an assembly into edrawing it should only create a single easm file, regardless whether you are using virtual component or not? How come all virtual parts will be converted into eprt? Is it something related to your PDM publisher setting?

[berg_lauritz]

Do you need to perform any measurement with edrawings?
Personally i find it much faster to view file in html than edrawing (6s to open in html vs 30s to open in edrawing for the first time), especially if you are only viewing ONE file occasionally, the time it take to launch edrawing is rather long on my machine (3D PDF is a disaster for me).
The downside is that the html need to be converted from edrawing, and the file size is much much larger

Yes, sometimes the floor needs to perform measurements.

Can I convert to html from SolidWorks directly? Or do I have to go through eDrawings? What information will be lost? How much bigger is the file size?

My memory with edrawing is abit rusty, but when you convert an assembly into edrawing it should only create a single easm file, regardless whether you are using virtual component or not? How come all virtual parts will be converted into eprt? Is it something related to your PDM publisher setting?

I deleted those parts and it had no effect on the assembly. Actually, when I do a save as in SolidWorks, it does not create those virtual parts. I'm going to talk to our VAR about this & give an update.

[zwei]

Yes, sometimes the floor needs to perform measurements.

Can I convert to html from SolidWorks directly? Or do I have to go through eDrawings? What information will be lost? How much bigger is the file size?

If you need to perform measurement, html might not be suitable (html file cannot be measured as of now)
Converting to html need to go through edrawings and the file size is about 5MB bigger as it need to include the viewer in the html file i believe.

I deleted those parts and it had no effect on the assembly. Actually, when I do a save as in SolidWorks, it does not create those virtual parts. I'm going to talk to our VAR about this & give an update.

If you did a saveas from solidworks and produce no virtual parts, this seem like an issue with the publisher?

[Tom G]

I use 3D PDF's. It works well on a typical PC spec. It can make customized views: orientation, show/hidden, dynamic sections (without surface body errors), or anything our fabricators or assembler need. Components can be somewhat identified by part name in its Tree. It can measure, but they have had difficulty implementing that. It working well on their PC is the biggest benefit. Previous viewer methods were incredibly cumbersome and marginally useful, in comparison.
Edit: I have to manage Display States to make 3D PDFs as desired, i.e. not showing envelope components.

I believe that Adobe may have released a 64-bit version by now. At one time, for desktop it was only available in 32-bit which utilized limited RAM resources. Back then, that is one reason we had looked for alternatives..
I had evaluated another software which performs extremely better than Adobe Reader for viewing 3D PDFs, 3DViewStation. If I recall, it also is a strong capable converter, but we only wanted it for its robust 3D PDF performance. It would have been a great purchase for shop productivity. It was highly featured beyond our needs, and appropriately overpriced compared to free. Guess which solution was chosen by management.

[berg_lauritz]

...Guess which solution was chosen by management.

Obviously the cheaper one!

I just looked into 3DViewStation & it looks like this makes 3D PDF actually usable. So many options suddenly for us, that's great!

[jcapriotti]

Right now we are playing around on how to improve the experience of viewing 3D models for our shop floor.

Currently we use .sldprt/.sldasm files & view them with eDrawings - which is kind of too slow.

We want to export those into a different file format (Edit: We convert through PDM automatically. We use the convert task for this) and are experimenting. When exporting to the native .easm format from eDrawings, all virtual parts will be converted into .eprt files, which is too time consuming to do every time & it does not seem to have any effect on the .easm file.
The biggest benefit for us is to have display states implemented into this file format. But maybe there is a better way?

What about eDrawings is slow? It's still a 3d model so your shop will need minimal 3d capable PCs at best for viewing any 3d format. A low end 3d card is must in this case.

I've tried to push our IT to put a low end discrete 3d card in the lowest baseline desktop/laptops they offer but get turned down with "not everyone needs it". It would add minimal cost and you'd be surprised how many people need/could view models to help them do their jobs. We always fall back to pdfs of the drawing.