Auto Cad to Solidworks

[bennett71]

Hello everyone,

I am new to Solidworks & have a small problem. I was given a bunch of Cad drawings that I need to convert to SW. I can open the files with no problem, but I cannot get the drawing to fit in the grey box correctly. I know am am missing something simple here & any help would be appreciated. Thnks, Tom

[JerryFlyGuy]

If your just trying to open the drawing. Download DWGeditor from the solidworks website and edit the drawing that way [its free w/ SW]. If your trying to make a model from the drawing don't open it as a drawin, import it into a part and then use the dwg geometry to create the part. If you look under the 'help' menu at the top of the SW screen, there is a "Moving from AutoCAD to SW" write-up which should help. There is also the 2D to 3D toolbar which should simplify the task.

Jerry

[DareBee]

Definately do the 2D drawing to 3D tutorial.

Although IMO it is "normally" quicker to model from scratch than to piss around extruding from the drawing.
Free form shapes, splines, gears etc, will save time by importing the dwg.

[bennett71]

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it. All I had to do was convert A-Cad prints to SW. When I opened the dwgs in SW, all I had to do was select user defined for the sheet size & enter the size of the Cad drawing & that did the trick. Thanks again, Tom