Solid Edge 2D drawings problem

I've been using NanoCad to create 2 D drawings for a few years without any problems. I can import dwg created by NanoCad into SE, my version is 222.00.00.132x64. Until very recently I could send both dwg and dft to a collaborator who has version 221, but now he can not open dwg, dft or even dxf created by me. I've even done a new 2D drawing in SE without involvement of Nano, and he can't open that. Anyone know what's going on? It is possible that I've updated SE recently, can't remember, but surely they wouldn't make it so 221 can't read 222

Can't help you, but I wish "things" didn't keep getting updated untill all the old people like me have gone.....

I've just successfully opened a .dft I created in April 2022, and a .par from about the same time, but I got this message

one or more drawing views are out of date, for more information use drawing view tracker

dimensions placed in these out of date drawing views will become detached when the drawing view is updated

I've no idea what that means! Can I save my dft as an earlier version? But why doesn't 221 version open dwgs, it always used to.

Edited By duncan webster on 25/03/2023 19:17:56

both 221 and 222 versions say <copyright>2023, however I've just noticed that collaborator's version says "2d drafting' whereas mine says 'community edition'

still not clear why 221 won't open dwg, I'll try sending him a really old dwg, watch this space

The 10 year old dwg, which might have been from Draftsight rather than NanoCad, opened fine in SE221.

Couple of thoughts.

It is not unknown for a later version of a product to write its output in an updated format that earlier versions of the software cannot read. There is also a difference between Community Edition and the Solid Edge 2D version and it seems possible that this is creating a problem. However, it does seem reasonable that as you are using something that might be considered an "industry standard" format, this kind of incompatibility should not happen! If it were a proprietary format (like a .par file) that might be understandable.

The other thought is that SE specifically prevents files written by CE from being read by the commercial version. "Industry standard" argument would apply, you might have thought, as above so this would only apply to proprietary file formats. Maybe! And again, would this apply between CE and the 2D version? Dunno!

I have never used the 2D version - just CE, so no experience with this problem. I have frequently written .stp files from CE and read them in F360. Not sure what that means about the wider range of formats but seems to suggest that SE in principle writes standard format files OK.

I would have thought a DWG file to be a standard format that can be read across versions of the same program and other programs too. For example I can open DWG files in Alibre that have been created by people using other CAD packages.

The only time I have found the version of a program to cause issues is when sharing files specific to that program such as a .SLDPRT which is a Solid works part file or AD_PRT which is an Alibre part file

Duncans post of 19.10 suggests he is opening Solidworks specific file snot generic DWG files as stated in his opening post. Or if he is importing a FWG from Nano it is not being sent out as Generic DWG but a Solid Edge Drawing format

May be worth checking the version of DWG or DXF that the file is saved as - AutoDesk does update the format from time to time and some software only supports older variants of DWG or DXF, so will not be able to read files in the newer variant.

There is often an option to set the variant when exporting the file.

The latest version of Autodesk's (free to use) Trueview will open all of Autodesk's DWG files to look at them, print them and convert them to older versions. This will allow older programs to open newer files but may need careful scrutiny to ensure nothing is missing or changed due to the conversion.

Martin C

QCAD opened a SE dxf OK, except the text formatting is wonky.

I'm using SE Community edition 223.00.00.101 (latest, I believe) and QCAD Pro 3.24.2.0, a few years old. The current version is 3.27.

My guess is it's a version problem, or maybe binary vs text. DXF is a AutoCAD format, and it's changed many times. Later versions added a binary format, which historically has been less portable than the same file in ASCII. If it's ASCII, the file can be opened with a text editor. If a text editor gags on it, try converting the file to ASCII (online or with an app).

The DXF output for me by SE is ASCII, not binary.

Version incompatibilities are harder. Basically, software is needed that can convert between versions. Autodesk are probably the best option for conversions. It's usually easier to convert old to new rather than the other way round, because old versions can't support later features.

Dave

I'm Duncan's collaborator who can no longer open Duncan's .dwg files

Following Martin's post I installed the Autodesk Freeview and tried opening Duncans file. That generated a warning message: "This DWG file was saved by an application that was not developed or licensed by Autodesk". It asked if I wished to cancel and when clicked proceed with opening it then said that "one or more SHX files are missing" (whatever they are). It asked if I wanted to specify the missing files or just continue. I clicked the latter and the drawing opened and, as far as I can tell, it looked O.K. There is no save option with this app so next I tried converting Duncan's file to a 2004 version .dwg file.

It seems to offer no alternative but to overwrite the original file. It went throuh the motions of doing this but there was no message to say if it was successful. Anyway, the file still gave the same warnings when opening in Autodesk Freeview and it still gave a blank drawing when opened in my Solid Edge so I suspect it did nothing because it was not a valid file.

I then tried opening a much older .dwg file that Duncan had sent. This one does open fine in S.E. and when opened in the Freeview there was no warning, just a message to say it was a trusted DWG file last saved by Autodesk or a licensed application.

I then tried an on-line converter (https://cad.online-convert.com/convert-to-dwg) with exactly the same -ve result as with AD-Freeview.

I feel I've learnt a bit about dwg files etc and added a useful app to my PC but we seem to be no further forward with solving the problem.

I'm not keen on changing my SE version in case it causes problems with my many files of projects and block libraries etc.

Mike

Duncan, have you tried saving the file as a dxf rather than exporting it? There could be an option in SE to save as an earlier version.

Also, save/export might be set to only save/export parts that are selected, not the whole file.

Edited By lee webster on 26/03/2023 16:31:01

SHX files are Autodesk font files.

This suggests that the drawings include text or symbols from a font other than one of the mainstream Autodesk offerings. (Maybe inadvertently!). The missing fonts *should* get replaced with one of the defaults after the warning.

I haven't used Autocad for more than a decade, but I have vague memories that there used to be an option to embed the fonts with the .dwg file (tick box or similar) - Do NanoCAD / SE have a similar option?

If you take note of the .SHX file name it should be possible to copy the file from the source computer to the destination computer.

Some more information here

Edited By Andy_G on 26/03/2023 21:11:48

Have you tried SVG files, at work we found them pretty good for 2d file exchange, although you need apps that support them.

Thanks Lee. Duncan has already try saving in .dxf format but that gave the same duff result as .dwg in my version of SE.

Thanks Andy. Useful to remember about the .SHX files, although for the present task loss of a bit of text would not matter. There seems to be something else different about Duncan's latest .dwg file.

Thanks Adam for the tip about SVC. My SE does not list such a file type in its file opening options. However, it does list the IGS / IGES file type for opening and saving. I gather that is another CAD format. Can you save in that format Duncan?

I did 'save as dxf'. However there has been a development. I found that if I open my dwg, then 'zoom all' it reduces the drawing to a tiny dot, which could easily be mistaken for a stray pixel. If I go back to the original, 'copy with base point' and select all the useful drawing and paste it into a new file, then 'zoom all' in the new file, it fills the screen. The text and dimension sizes have gone bit odd, but I'd live with that. I'm awaiting Mike getting back to me ad to whether he did actually have a pixel when he tried to open the original, and whether he can now open the new file.

Both those latest files work fine Duncan - hooray!

Mike also had the pixel, something to do with the beginning of the universe where there were umpteen dimensions, but rolled up really small?

A lot of my projects end up like that - with a big bang...