Export to CATIA

[Adithya Ramesh]

Hello again everyone

I am working with an aircraft model from the OpenVSP Hangar. I need to export it to CATIA and make it and editable file. In CATIA I intend to replace some parts with some scanned point clouds.

When I export a STL file from VSP, there are too many surface elements which I don't need. Could anyone kindly let me know how to extract surfaces and retain them as per the labelling in VSP, that is, I want parts called 'wing' in VSP to remain as 'wing' in a CATPart.

Thanks and regards

Adithya

[Miroslav Grulovic]

Use iges format, export from VSP, and import to CATIA , it works 

Good luck

Sent from my iPhone

On May 10, 2021, at 5:19 PM, Adithya Ramesh <nl.ad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello again everyone

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[Rob McDonald]

Miroslav's recommendation of IGES export is a good one.

You should try IGES and STEP -- both the "Untrimmed" option available under File... Export... menus, but also check out the Analysis... Trimmed Surfaces... option.  This one will take a little longer to export, but should be able to generate a fully watertight solid representation of your aircraft in STEP or IGES formats.

For un-trimmed files, there are some options about splitting the surfaces (you probably don't want to use them).  For all the file types, there are some options to control how the part names appear in your eventual CAD program.

Some trial and error should go a long way, let us know how it goes.

Rob

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[Adithya Ramesh]

Thank you both for your replies!

Yes, I have tried all formats. The issue I am facing is that in CATIA I can't make an editable part. The surfaces are further split into smaller surfaces which are causing problems when I try to extract surfaces. However, in ANSYS Design Modeler the surface remains as one surface. In CATIA I want to replace some parts with newer geometries. I guess I'll ask this question on a different forum for CATIA as well.

[Adithya Ramesh]

I have found that the geometry is easier to edit in Pointwise as compared to CATIA. If I do manage to succeed in what I am doing, I will let you know! It will be helpful for anyone else also trying to export VSP models to a more standard CAD tool for processing for CFD.

[Rob McDonald]

In the un-trimmed export, there is an option for whether to split surfaces or not -- have you tried the option on / off?

In all cases, the surfaces will not be parametric when they are imported to some sort of CAD -- they will be monolithic shapes.  You should be able to move, rotate, cut, fillet, trim, merge, etc. the shapes -- but you won't be able to vary the parameters you see in OpenVSP.

Rob

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openvsp/c8ee1340-75cd-49f1-972e-abf620ee4cf3n%40googlegroups.com.

[Miroslav Grulovic]

Also one could use CADFIX software, to transfer IGES to CATIA5 geometry works well for VSP geometry.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openvsp/CAEppYpHOiEsoGjUQ6tZwhZJ2U3%3DUBXN-XCyc%3DbBNi_umVpFuoQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Daniel McGinnis]

Hi Rob,

Is it possible to make a python script that automates exporting the geometry in open vsp to CATIA?

[Rob McDonald]

You can use the API to do just about anything that you can do through the GUI.

There are a handful of ways to export files from OpenVSP that may work to varying degrees in CATIA.  It depends on what you want and on what works for you.

I recommend you experiment with exporting the files from the GUI and then worry about automating it later -- once you figure out the recipe that works best for your situation.

This presentation from the recent workshop talks about the ways to head to CAD.

https://openvsp.org/wiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=workshop23:export_to_cad_and_cfd.pdf

Rob