Efficient & Accurate Conversion of 2D PDF to 3D models

1

Jason Wooden Mechanical Designer

Space Dynamics Laboratory- Utah State University-Logan, UT

2

Education: 3 years of drafting in high school. Degrees from Utah State University (USU): A.A.S. in Drafting, B.S. in Industrial Teacher Education and M.S. in Industrial Technology. Tooling designer for DeLorean Manufacturing Company (Snow-cat Division).

Design engineer for Icon Health and Fitness, folding treadmill patent. Taught CAD part-time at USU and a local community

college for about six years.

Since 1998 mechanical designer at SDL. Extremely rewarding to design “stuff that goes into space.”

About myself

3

The Space Dynamics Laboratory is over 50 years old and is a not-for-profit unit of the Utah State University Research Foundation. Around 350 employees.

SDL solves the technical challenges faced by the military, science community, & industry in these key areas:

Electro-optical and space environment sensors and subsystems for over 400 rocket-borne and space-based payloads (more than any other university).

Calibration and characterization techniques and facilities.

CubeSat busses and small-scale satellite components.

Data compression, processing, and exploitation.

Real-time reconnaissance data visualization hardware and software for operational military applications.

Company has been using Solid-Edge for design software since 2003.

About my company

4

Airborne IR & Visible 2-axis gimbaled sensor system with 3-axis stabilization* & geo-registration.

Recent project: EyePOD

*USPTO 12/339,444

5

Recent project: Suncatcher

Design, Document, Fab, Test & install < 3 months.

Fully automated sun-tracking instrument for AFRL.

6

Recent project: ARSS

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/planes-uavs/4313331

Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System is a lightweight gimbaled weapon platform that can hit a small moving target at 1000m from a hovering rotorcraft.

7

In my line of work, roughly 1/3 of all parts

that make up an assembly (excluding fasteners)

are Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS).

Frustration: All COTS parts that we model

ALREADY EXIST and have certainly been modeled previously!

More often than not, it’s very difficult to get copies of these models.

• Try contacting the company (yeah right, NDAs, etc.)

• Web libraries like PartCommunity, TraceParts, 3DContentCentral, etc. have only a small fraction of everything COTS. User dependent, accuracy?

On the other hand, PDF data sheets of COTS parts are prolific- but often lack the level of dimensioning required to accurately model the part.

Even if sufficiently dimensioned, manual modeling from a PDF is cumbersome and mistake-prone.

Keep it digital: How can a designer use Solid Edge to go directly from a digital PDF data sheet to a solid model?

Challenge: 2D PDF to 3D model

8

Step 1: Open the PDF with Inkscape*

*free download at http://inkscape.org/download/

9

Step 2: Clean-up the PDF

Use “ungroup” and “delete” to isolate the geometry.

10

Step 3: Save the PDF as a DXF

11

Scale geometry if needed (scale factor= size in real life ÷ size in SolidEdge).

Step 4: Open the DXF in SolidEdge Draft

12

More on this from Dan Swartz at 10:30 am.

Step 5: use the Create 3D command

13

Synchronous really shines in this step.

Step 6: Create a 3D model using the 2D sketches

14

Part shown in next assembly

15

Example: GPS splitter

SE Part Model

SE Part sketches

SE Draft

2D PDF drawing

16

Example: PCB

SE Part Model

SE Part sketches

SE Draft

2D PDF drawing

17

Example: Thermal Weapon Sight

18

Conclusion

When won’t it work?

Scanned PDFs can’t be saved as DXFs (scanned PDFs are obvious by their look).

Holes & fillets sometimes have to be re-drawn in SE.

Live demo…

Who would like to see the ability to open PDFs in ST6?

Questions/comments?