Converting from IGES 3D to think3

The think3 application can load IGES 3D models generated with other CAD programs.

General concepts

Entities are converted according to the IGES 3D to think3 conversion table.
Conversion is performed according to the current values of the parameters of the IGES Options dialog box opened by selecting Options.
Layers are converted as per map table defined in the General- Layers category of the IGES Conversion Options. If no mapping is defined, the layer name is preserved as it is.

General warning on conversion of 3D IGES models to think3

To know exactly which IGES entities are converted to think3 and, if they are, which the corresponding think3 entities are, see the conversion table.

In general, this is what happens:

IGES curves are converted to their corresponding think3 curves
IGES surfaces are converted to their corresponding think3 surfaces
only IGES Manifold Solid B-Rep Object (entity 186) solids are converted to think3 solids: all IGES solid entities related to the Solid Instance (entity 430) objects — as the entities with the following numbers: 152, 154, 156, 158, 160, 162, 164, 168, 180, 182, 184 — are not converted. They are ignored during the conversion process.
You can convert solids to their component surfaces by clearing the Save/Load solid entities check box in the General page IGES Options dialog box.

Tips on converting 3D models from IGES to think3

If you already know the environment in which the original IGES file was generated and which settings are the best for converting files generated i such an environment, the conversion will be easily performed with no problems.

On the contrary, if you don't know in which environment your IGES file was created and/or which settings to use, you will have to try to convert it for the first time, see what you get and then if the result is not the expected one or you think it's not acceptable, try to set the proper parameters.

So, if you know the environment in which your IGES file was produced, set the proper settings and open the file. Otherwise, in general, you'll have to proceed as follows:

Try to open your IGES file at least once or twice and see what you get. After examining the results, set to the proper values those parameters which mainly affect conversion accordingly to the results you've obtained and open the file again
If you have troubles obtaining surfaces instead of solids in think3 (your solids are split to their component surfaces), check the "Min. user-intended resolution of model " value in the log file of the last conversion you tried to perform. The think3 default value for this parameter is 0.001 mm or 0.0001 inches. If the value you can read in the log file is higher (say, for example, 0.2), this is probably the cause of your problems. You have two possibilities:
- Try to "close" the solid using the Make Solid command and specifying the proper tolerance value (Edit tolerance: a bigger value than the one you read in the log file)
- Re-generate the model with the proper tolerance value in the original environment, convert it to the IGES format and open it again in the think3 application.
If the file is not loaded, open the IGES file using an ASCII text editor and check the last line: it must contain the "T" character, identifying the Terminate Section. If the "T" character is not present in the last line, then the file is truncated: it's spoiled and it cannot be loaded
If you get a "Dr. Watson's" warning, you can try to change the Validation value from Full to Delete not fixed: this way, while opening your IGES file, you'll delete all entities which the validation process cannot correct
Reading the log file of the conversion process is the most direct and simplest way to check conversion errors. In such file, errors are logged in appropriate sections, which will help identify where the problem is.

Untrimmed surfaces when loading IGES files
If you encounter many untrimmed surfaces when loading an IGES file, it is highly recommended that you proceed as follows:

Load the file with the Surface trimming modes option in the IGES Conversion Options set to the default option ( As per IGES file).
If you don't get any significant improvement, switch the Surface trimming modes option to 3D curves.
If you still don't get any significant improvement, switch the Surface trimming modes option to UV curves.