Pro/ENGINEER and Creo Neutral files

[nhanratty]

All

Ok my understanding of Neutral files is that they are like iges/step files but can only be opened with Pro/ENGINEER and/or Creo Parametric.

So can somebody explain why neutral files can open in either Pro/ENGINEER or CREO Parametric and suffer from gaps between surfaces or indeed entire surfaces missing?

I thought it should be a sure-fire way of being able to open a PTC generated model in PTC software and not have to deal with the same issues we do with iges and step.

Is there something I am missing?

Regards,

Neal

[juanchonesa]

Hello Neal,

You made this question some time ago with no apparent answer, I am experiencing the same problem, if you found your answer somewhere else, I would appreciate if you could share any findings.

Regards,

Juan

[BenLoosli]

Are you bringing in the neutral file to the same version/build that you exported it from?

There could be changes in the mathematics used in generating the surfaces between different versions.

If you get the errors with a round-trip export/import to the same version, I would open a help desk call.

[juanchonesa]

Hey Ben,

I am trying to import a CREO 4 file into Pro Eng 5... So far, GCRI has done a good job, however, I was hoping *.neu could do the same job... or even better by keeping some modeling history in the model tree.

[StephenW]

.neu files are a data exchange format. As far as I know, they don't keep feature history.

They are synonymous with step or iges.

[BenLoosli]

GCRI is only developed to work with 2 (or is it 3) prior releases. PTC may have changed that criteria when they totally tossed out Creo 1 and There are a lot of uses still on Wildfire 5.

Does GCRI keep the modeling history?

[Mahesh_Sharma]

Condition about 2 or 3 release was avoid any issues due to algorithm in newer models, generally it use to work well with previous versions. 

GCRI will maintain the model tree, except editing in existing features.  

[ChrisGeo]

4 years in the future, I am having this same issue.  My current experience is that Neutral files create more issues than STEP or IGES.  This is happening within the same version of Creo 5.  My supplier is complaining that my STEP files produce many detached facets in Unigraphics.  Of course, I don't see these same aberrations when I import back into Creo but there are gaps and disconnected surfaces and the geometry won't solidify.  My supplier has Creo 3 so I tested the neutral format.  It is worse (on import back to Creo) than either STEP or IGES.

Admittedly, my part is a complicated casting with 7 merged files. I do have some geometry checks like tiny edges but nothing self-intersecting or non-manifold.  I've experimented with different accuracy, different AP protocols.  So far no luck.  Pictures shown are the Geom Check reports from IDD just for reference.