Why doesnt Solidworks feature recognition work on this STL?
it wont do the automatic recognition and tells me to select the features individually but when I try to select a face on the model it wont highlight it? I've been messing with this for the last 2 days. I've tried importing it as step and obj files as well with the same issue.
2 Answers
Depends on your version of Solidworks. There's lots of tutorials on using feature works. Here is one a good one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pHQ2i41gww
But, in general it's pretty difficult to get a full feature tree from a part that's a step or an stl. Even if you have the proper tools, there are some geometries that Solidworks won't be able to reverse engineer a feature tree for. See attached screenshot for changing .stl import settings too. General better to import as a solid body. That could help.
Rebuilding functions in a step file only works fine from version 214 onwards. Then you have to uncheck in body intrusion check because many still model with extrusions cuts with termination to size, do not use up to face, up to next, offsets from surface, etc. I advise you to import it as an stp file and then edit it with direct editing. Currently there is no software in the world that can recognize sweeps, lofts, cutting surfaces, thickening, etc. There are 20 who try, both on Parasolid and Acis. Then if it was made in CREO you will see it with a lot of open edges because their solid kernel has a wide closing tolerance.
At this address you can download the STP analyzer and you can find many news about the STP world.
https://www.nist.gov/services-resources/software/step-file-analyzer-and-viewer
