CAD2SRF Version 1.4

Authors: Michael J. Aftosmis and William M. Chan

Description:

   This tool is used to generate surface triangulations and CAD edge
   curves from native CAD parts using the CAPRI interface. CAD volume
   and face tags are stored for each surface triangle. This code is
   derived from the surfTriCapri code by Mike Aftosmis.

   Two modes of operation are possible: local or client-server.
   The client-server mode allows a server to run the CAD license which
   does not have to reside on the client machine. For example, there
   is no CATIA license avaiable on Linux and Macintosh machines, but
   a Windows server can provide the CATIA license and cad2srf can be
   used on a Linux or Macintosh machine to access the CATIA part via
   CAPRI.

   For client-server mode, an environment variable called CapriServer
   has to be set as follows"

   setenv CapriServer http://my_machine.domain_name:port_number

   where my_machine  = the machine name of the server
         domain_name = domain name
         port_number = access port number on server

   e.g., setenv CapriServer http://machine.nas.nasa.gov:12345

   Input file

   - An optional input file can be supplied with the "-i input_file"
     command. The file format is identical to the output volumes
     information file (see below). If this file is supplied, only the
     CAD volumes listed in the file will be tesselated and written
     to the output. Input parameters can be different for each volume.

   Output files

   - CART3D surface triangulation with CAD volume and face tags.
     The CAD part and modeler names are encoded in the filename of the
     triangulation as follows: root.a.tri
     where root = partname.modelername.capri.xxx

     partname = name of CAD part with no extensions

     modelername code:

        cat - Catia
        cv5 - CatiaV5
        fls - FELISA
        ide - I-DEAS
        opc - OpenCASCADE
        prs - Parasolid
        pro - Pro-Engineer
        slw - SolidWorks
        uni - Unigraphics

     xxx = 3 digit number for the CAD volume number

     e.g., for a Pro/E part called test.prt with one volume, the triangulation
     filename produced would be test.pro.capri.001.a.tri.

   - PLOT3D multiple grid formatted file containing all CAD edges.
     (filename = root.edg)

   - PLOT3D multiple grid formatted file containing ordered CAD edges
     that satisfy y=0, z>=0 (useful for extracting definition curves
     for axisymmetric bodies about x-axis)
     (filename = root.cur)

   - Vertex uv file.
     A vertex on a CAD edge separating two CAD faces will have 2 sets
     of uv values, one corresponding to each adjacent CAD face. A vertex
     at a CAD node may have more than 2 sets of uv values.
     (filename = root.vuv)

   - Volumes information file (volinfo.o) containing the number of volumes,
     global average scale factor, and the local scale factors and input
     parameters used for each volume.

Usage:

  cad2srf [-m modeler] [-p partname] [-i vifile] [-o vofile] [-vinfo] [-vnum vnumstr] \
          [-angle maxang] [-maxEdge mxedge] [-maxchord small] \
          [-no_file] [-newform] [-efile] [-cfile] [-uvfile]

  cad2srf -help  (to get usage)

  All arguments are optional. If omitted, the defaults in the following table are used.

Argument	Description	Default
modeler	Pro/ENGINEER \| Parasolid \| FELISA \| UniGraphics \| OpenCASCADE \| Catia \| CatiaV5 \| SolidWorks, etc. (cad2srf tested only on Pro/E, Parasolid and FELISA)	Pro/ENGINEER
partname	Partname, no extension	mypart
vifile	input file containing max angle, edge and chord by volume	(not read)
vofile	output file containing CAD volumes information	volinfo.o
-vinfo	output volume names info only, no tesselation	(not activated)
vumstr	volume numbers of volumes to tesselate, e.g., 3,7,11-15	all volumes
maxang	Max allow dihedral angle in degrees	14.0
mxedge	Max allow edge length (frac [0-1.0])	0.1
small	Max allow chord-height tolerance (frac [0-1.0])	0.05
-nofile	Do not write Cart3d triangle files	written
-newform	Write new Cart3d triangulation format where number of tags >= 1	old form
-efile	Write CAD edges to Plot3d file	not written
-cfile	Write filtered and ordered y=0, z>=0 CAD edges to Plot3d file	not written
-uvfile	Write vertex uv to file	not written

Input and Output Volumes Information File Format

A sample volumes information file is given below.

Number of volumes           = 5 
Global average scale factor = 11.2
Vol.#  Orig. Scale   Mod. Scale     maxang       maxedge       maxchord     Name 
   1  2.521204e+02  1.809643e+02  1.400000e+01  1.000000e-01  5.000000e-02  COMP_A
   2  4.340000e+02  7.809643e+02  1.400000e+01  1.000000e-01  5.000000e-02  COMP_B
   3  2.521204e+02  1.809643e+02  1.100000e+01  1.000000e-01  5.000000e-02  COMP_C
   4  1.855000e+01  3.265406e+01  1.100000e+01  2.000000e-02  5.000000e-02  COMP_D
   5  3.202970e+02  7.150525e+02  0.800000e+01  1.000000e-01  5.000000e-02  COMP_E

Software access:

The cad2srf software module requires the CAPRI libraries which is a commercial product by CADNexus. An executable for cad2srf can be requested from CADNexus directly.

Last modified: Fri Nov 13 14:28:00 2009