Bridging The Gap Between SolidWorks & The Construction Industry
Tips and Tricks • Suraj Sethi • 15 July 2015
Traditionally, detail mechanical design has been done in 3D CAD softwares like SolidWorks.
Conversely, architects tend to use softwares such as ArchiCAD to produce architectural designs for the construction industry.
Bridging the gap between the two has proved challenging, with one of the main problems being the orientation of models that are exchanged between the two industries.
With the increasing adoption of BIM (Building Information Modeling) by engineers as they collaborate with Architects, HVAC system designers and others in the construction sector, Intercad’s partner IC3D Solutions has developed a handy tool that many will find invaluable.
A good example for uses of this tool, is exporting IFC files out of SolidWorks.
Simplicity itself, the “Reorientate and Export” tool fixes an annoying problem whereby SolidWorks exports IFC files with the wrong orientation.
In the world of construction, the Z axis is normally vertical, not the Y axis.
This can be a bit frustrating, and hence this tool simply re-orientates the model to the required vertex or coordinate system, and lets the user save the model as any format, including IFC using the standard SolidWorks save function.
The re-orientation process is carried out on a temporary file that is automatically removed. The original file is safe, and is never overwritten by the tool.
This great new tool is available for free download from myIntercad
