Direct CAD Access Settings
The Direct CAD Access Settings is the master control for a number of CAD Import options through SA's primary importer tool: Direct CAD Access. The options for this dialog are explained below.
Entity Types to Import. The first portion of this dialog includes check boxes for the types of entities to import. By unchecking any of these data types they will be excluded from the import process.
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Group Name. All points from the CAD file will be imported into a group with this name.
Import Filters. A selection of import filters are also available:
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Import Construction Geometry. For CAD formats that sup- port it, unchecking this box will exclude construction geometry from the import.
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Import Hidden Entities. For CAD formats that support it, un- checking this box will exclude hidden entities from the import.
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Import all surfaces as Mesh Graphical Entities. When checked, surfaces from the CAD file are imported as Mesh Graphical Entities instead of true surfaces. Mesh Graphical Entities are useful for visualizing surfaces and have a significantly lower requirement for computing resources than surfaces, but you cannot analyze against them.
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Do not import fillets. Usually, CAD surfaces contain minor features that may not be important to a metrology inspection. Fillets or modeled weld beads are one example of this. To keep your imported model as efficient as possible, check this option to exclude fillets from the import (if the file type supports marking the features as such).
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Do not import Dittos (repeated items). Some file formats support “dittos”, which are efficient memory copies of surfaces that are repeated over and over in a CAD file. For instance, hardware such as bolts, nuts, and screws are often modeled as dittos to save memory in the CAD application. These are features that are rarely inspected by metrology—check this option to exclude them from the import.
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Ditto Threshold. Some formats support multiple levels of dit- tos (dittos of dittos, for instance). If necessary, you can modify this number to indicate the threshold below which dittos are not imported. Higher numbers import less dittos.
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Selective Import (Choose which Components to Import). When enabled, the Choose CAD Features dialog is displayed to allow you to more finely control which entities are imported from the CAD file.
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Surface Compatibility Mode. When enabled, this function attempts to adapt surfaces (brep) from the imported CAD to improve compatibility with SA rendering. Try enabling this when running into import problems with specific CAD files where faces appear broken or are missing.
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Explode Surfaces. When enabled, individual surfaces will be created for each face in the imported model. Individual face colors will be set as the object colors, preserving more of the color information from the model during import. Use this function with caution when importing large models because abundant surfaces can slow down tree operations.
Other Settings: Several additional options are available for job management.
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Center View on Imported Objects. When enabled, the graphical view will be centered on the imported objects after import.
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Import Into Folders Matching CAD File Hierarchy. When enabled, if the source CAD format supports a hierarchy, that hierarchy will be preserved in the SA tree using a hierarchy of folders and collections.
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Remove Empty Folders. Importing a CAD file into fold- ers maching the CAD file hierarchy (see previous option) can sometimes result in empty folders in the tree. Enabling this op- tion removes these empty folders after the import operation.
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Lock Imported Items. When enabled imported items that can be locked will have this status set automatically.
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Prompt if One or More Components Are Missing. Several CAD formats support the idea of a product or assembly file, which is a master file that has several supporting component CAD files. When importing these master files, this option will warn you if any subcomponent CAD files that are part of the master assembly are not found.
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Do Not Show This Dialog Each Time. When enabled, the Di- rect CAD Access Settings dialog will not display on import, but will use the previous settings. If you want to access the settings again, follow the steps in.
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Surface Normals Mode. This setting has two possible options: Mode 1 or Mode 2. Some CAD formats or CAD packages do not consistently define or store the direction of surface normals. Incorrectly oriented CAD surface normals will cause incorrect
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CAD File Units. Most CAD formats include a units designation or default units settings. This option allows a user to select the desired units directly if needed.