Exporting individual sheetmetal part DXF data from assembly

[amarczell-3]

Hi all,

I am trying to export flat sheetmetal DXF data from Creo Parametric 2. The assembly containsa fairly large amount of components that need to be sent to LASER cutting. The arrangement and number of parts is driven by expressions and references from a layout file. I don't mind doing manual work, but because the parameters can often change, it would be very time consuming to do it.

To understand better what I mean here are some details:

I have a platform from sheet metal, on top of that there stiffener ribs, also sheetmetal parts. The ribs are dynamically generated thus always changing (also the platforms dimensions are variable).

What I am looking for is:

2d DXF files for each part in the assembly, scaled 1:1. Is this possible in Creo 2 (or 3)?

I appreciate any help or suggestion.

Thanks

[TomD.inPDX · Accepted solution]

Short of programming a routine, you won't get this out of the box.

What I may suggest is to have a flat pattern representation of each part. If you want all the DXF export data in one file, add sheets to your assembly drawing file. Open a new sheet and set the 1st flat pattern file active. Now create the 1:1 view. Do this for every part or nest them in one page or more.

In this method, if you do copy the assembly, you preserve all the parts in one drawing.

I always prefer to make DXF from a drawing. I can preview it and I can see exactly what is being output. I can even add and remove information as needed.

Welcome to the forum, Andras!

[Jose_Costa]

I don´t know about sheetmetal, but I tried to export all parts of a regular assembly to dxf with my script Trailmaker and has worked.

This is how did it:

1 - Created a template for the drawing,

2 - Erased all objects from memory

3 - Opened the assembly

4 - Closed the assembly (this way I get all parts of the asm into session)

5 - Call the trail mapkey (Trailmaker script)

6 - Filter just prt´s in session

7 - Choose trail Prt2Dxf.txt ( a trailfile that creates a drawing with the same name and exports as dxf)

8 - Wait and see...

This will create dxf´s with the same name as the prt´s. If you already have any drw´s created with the same name the script won´t work.

Hope it helps

Jose

Video Link : 5353

[TomD.inPDX]

...love the work you are doing with Trailmaker, Jose!

[Jose_Costa]

Thanks Antonius,

It´s a simple script but enough to save us from a lot of unnecessary clicks.

PTC as done 99.9% of the job, why don´t they gave us tools for automation?? No, you have to spend time learning Jlink or Toolkit...

[bgračnar]

Hello Jose!

Great work and thanks for sharing!

Best Regards!

Bojan

[rkumar-10]

Hi Jose

Trying to access your script, can you please share it.

I have similar case where i have to convert solid parts of assembly tp dxf format for CNC program generation.

//Rakesh

[Jose_Costa]

If like me, you don´t know how to create a template, take a look:

[gkoch]

Hello Andras,

Welcome to the forum!

Were some of the suggestions helpful to you?

Thanks,

Gunter

[amarczell-3]

Thanks a lot guys, really great community. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions