How do I export drawings so that other software like Solid works can view if?

cs_toh

I tried exporting a drawing and chose Solidworks format. But when I try to view it using E-drawing which can read Solidworks files. I get an error message saying there's something wrong with the version number. How do I get around this?

NeilCooke

We will not be adding tessellation to the SLDPRT file - it is just a wrapper for Parasolid. Export as Parasolid and eDrawings will read it just fine.

EDIT: probably better to export as STEP (or export as Parasolid in an older version - SolidWorks is always several versions behind Onshape).

cs_toh

Exporting as Parasolid didn't work for me. Exporting as STEP was the best. e-Drawing could open it right away.

S1mon

Do you have the latest eDrawings application?

mahir

I tested this out using eDrawing 2018 and 2020. Neither worked and gave me the same error regarding missing tessellation data (see below).


Basically, SolidWorks has the option to save something like STL data in .sldprt files along with its regular CAD data. This is the data eDrawing uses when opening a SW file. Onshape apparently doesn't do that. I don't know if that's something they can implement in the future or not.

That being said, you shouldn't have any problem opening SolidWorks files in SolidWorks. And if eDrawing compatibility is required, then you can resave the SW file from SW, which will save the tesselation data with the file. Alternatively, you can export one of the many neutral 3D file formats that are natively compatible with multiple CAD programs and viewers (IGES, STEP, etc).

NeilCooke

We will not be adding tessellation to the SLDPRT file - it is just a wrapper for Parasolid. Export as Parasolid and eDrawings will read it just fine.

EDIT: probably better to export as STEP (or export as Parasolid in an older version - SolidWorks is always several versions behind Onshape).

cs_toh

Exporting as Parasolid didn't work for me. Exporting as STEP was the best. e-Drawing could open it right away.