Problems Importing CAD model to Simulink 3D Animation

Hello,

I am working with Simulink 3D animation and am attempting to bring in a CAD model from Solidworks but am having issues. When trying to add a specific .wrl file to my world editor using a transform, certain geometries of the part are missing. However, when I insert the part using an inline reference all of the geometry remains intact. I have already confirmed I am exporting the CAD model to a VRML 2 file.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Max

Answer 1

[Jan]

Hi Maximilian, If you don't see some parts of the scene, try to navigate around it to see if it is not caused by near / far object clipping. (Can happen if in your imported model there are avatarSize and visibilityLimit nodes defined explicitely).

If it's not this, let's focus in model objects:

Placing each part of the moving assembly to a separate VRML file, and then include all such small parts in your main scene using the Inline nodes is actually a recommended practice.

In order to work flexibly with the exported VRML model, it is good that each component in the assembly hierarchy is exported into a separate VRML file. Uncheck the “Save all components of the assembly in a single file” checkbox when exporting the VRML model from SolidWorks.

If you use SimMechanics Link for SolidWorks, you can also export the STL / XML model of your assembly and then use stl2vrml command to create both main VRML file and individual part VRML Inline files automatically. The main file contains the same hierarchical structure as your SolidWorks model.

You can import shapes and structure into the VRML model also manually - this is what you did - but then it is up to you to create the right object hierarchy. The fact that you didn't see some objects can be caused also by their wrong scaling (mm vs. m etc.) or placement.

See also: Using CAD Models with the Simulink 3D Animation Product

I will send to your e-mail address the file that covers import from SolidWorks specifically.

Hope this helps, if there are still problems, you would need to send me your model.

Jan