solidworks input to Labview

[ppupputria]

Hi

i'm trying to make a model in Solidworks and trying to relay it to LabVIEW to control the motors to machine the model physically.

most of the solidworks related questions here are about how to control the soldworks from LabVIEW - how do i do it the other way?

cheers

[RavensFan · Accepted solution]

I'm not going to say it can't be done in LabVIEW, because I'm sure with enough time and effort, and an infinite number of monkeys wireworking on an infinite number of LabVIEW computers, it could be done.

But what you are asking for is CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) software.  An extremely complicated piece of software that is even more complicated than a CAD package or even a solid modeling package like Solidworks.  Those packages cost thousands of dollars for a reason.

For all practical purposes, you aren't going to be able to get LabVIEW to do what you are asking.

[BMac]

If you want to draw a 2D or 3D curve in SolidWorks and have LabVIEW execute it as a motion profile, you can export the curve feature from SolidWorks as a text file. Then in your NI LabVIEW SoftMotion Module application, add a contour move function. A contour move is a move expressed as a series of positions that the software uses to extrapolate a smooth curve between the points. To import a tab delimited text file for the curve into the LabVIEW project, right-click on My Computer and select New>NI SoftMotion Table. This will enable you to browse for the tab delimited text file containing the curve data points. Then wire the SoftMotion table resource you created into the table input of the LabVIEW contour move function block.

Here are some instructions on how to export the curve from SolidWorks and prepare it for reading in LabVIEW: First, change the units and dimensions standard for your SolidWorks assembly to MMGS (millimeter, gram, second). To do this, navigate to Tools>Options>Document Properties>Units. Then right-click on the curve item in SolidWorks and select Edit Feature. Save the curve data as a file. Open the .sldcrv text file in Notepad and navigate to Edit>Replace. In the Find What box type "mm". Leave the Replace With box empty and click Replace All. Finally, save the file as a .txt file. Now you are ready to import the file into the LabVIEW project as described above.

If you need to change the time interval between data points in the curve, you can read the text file into LabVIEW and use resampling feature of the Align & Resample Express VI.

For more background on the contour move function, see this tutorial:

Motion Profile Development Using the High-Level Function Block API

Here's a few other resources that may be useful to get you started. 

LabVIEW-SolidWorks Digital Prototyping Training Webcast Series (see the topic called "Motion Control Timing and Sequencing")

Getting Started Guide for NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks

Here are links to the evaluation versions of LabVIEW and the NI SoftMotion Module for SolidWorks:

LabVIEW 2009

NI SoftMotion Module (includes a 30 day evaluation license for NI SoftMotion for SolidWorks)