David, Every import will behave differently regarding the nurbs to poly conversion options. It's all dependent on the objects size, its general UV makeup, its topology etc. The options make it easier to adapt to the topology but not easier to convert. Back in the day we would be attempting to convert each surface individually so we could make the UVs of two adjoining surfaces match as close to possible at the NURBS to Poly conversion. But this matching is dependent upon a U or V length. Dragging a model down like this, as I think you already know can be quite time consuming.
My explanation regarding Solids is rather old and traditional I'm afraid. This might prove to give you a better sense of the Solidworks paradigm. https://books.google.com/books?id=99YzrOr7Hd8C&pg=SA2-PA1&lpg=SA2-PA1&dq=solids+modeling+primer&source=bl&ots=jKS0rLrcUN&sig=PN88V3rDHyCONe0nOKGLzr3rugg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj51dLApM_KAhVBlx4KHZU6CCAQ6AEIRzAH#v=onepage&q=solids%20modeling%20primer&f=false Apparently Solidworks has its own surface/solid methodology that’s not as exclusive to solids as the older applications. As I said, I'm not as familiar with SW as say ProE or Ideas and I don't have access to these apps anymore. I've been wanting to learn SW recently for something totally unrelated to 3D but haven’t had the chance. Still, my guess is that you're having the difficulty because you are putting IGES into the mix. IGES is an open standard and is notoriously unforgiving sometimes. In fact, we have seen multiple flavors of IGES over the years due to its open nature and it's never quite clear how one app is going to adapt to one flavor of IGES. But to get to IGES you have to reduce the core data to stuff that the IGES standard can understand. My point is I think IGES would be many levels below a Solidworks definition. I've often likened IGES to being similar in theory to VRML, IV, or even OBJ. There are countless ways you can forge any of these files and if you use some of the more obscure stuff in them you can make the files unreadable by some importers. I don't think that’s the case in your situation, but I do think that to get it to IGES its potentially reducing the data to a limited surface subset. DirectConnect is installed with Maya, though you may have to go into the plugin manager and turn the plugin on. Reading CAD data has traditionally been one of Maya's strengths due to it close relationship with some of the Alias design products. DirectConnect has been around for almost as long as Maya has. But you have to know the order or precedence of some the conversions dependent upon the source and targets. Not everything can go in a linear one-step conversion. -- Joey Ponthieux LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES II) Science Systems and Applications Inc. (SSAI) NASA Langley Research Center __________________________________________________ Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not represent the opinions of NASA or any other party. > -----Original Message----- > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage- > boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of David Saber > Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 9:50 AM > To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > Subject: Re: Converting Nurbs to Polygons > > Hello Joe, > > Thanks for your very informative answer, much appreciated. I hope you > don't mind I've forwarded your post to my co-worker who is operating > Solidworks here. > > To answer some of your questions : > - In Maya, I have played with the Convert NURBS to Polygon Options but > didn't find any statisfactory settings. Do you know some good settings to get > a clean mesh? > - I didn't know Solidworks was producing these "solid" meshes. I heard of > them before but I didn't get what they were exactly. Now with your > explanations I understand better. I thought Solidworks was just a nurbs > modeller. it would be great to find a way to convert from solid to polymesh > from within Solidworks, we'll try that. > - Is DirectConnect installed with every new Maya installation? Last time I > checked, I didn't find the Solidworks format in the import dialog. But here is > what I read in the Direct Connect PDF at > https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn- > explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/ENU/123112/files/directconnect- > html.html > , in the SolidWorks section: > "Type of data imported : The software imports NURBS for this file format and > maintains the following information on import: Precise geometric surface and > topology information, Data organization, Tolerances and unit, Colors" > So perhaps DirectConnect translates solid to nurbs at import time, and in that > case, it's the same as exporting an IGES from Solidworks in order to import it > into Maya (our current workflow). > - In another answer in this thread, I said I got nice results with MOI, but > the > nurb object I tested was simple, I'll have to test with another, more complex > object. > > Thanks again and see you! > David > > > > On 2016-01-29 15:09, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES II] wrote: > > Maya DirectConnect
