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ACCUMARK TO IGES DATA CONVERSION

Release 8.1.2

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction............................................................................................................................. 3

Installation............................................................................................................................... 3

Before You Start..................................................................................................................... 5

Converting pieces................................................................................................................... 6

Technical issues..................................................................................................................... 7

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Introduction
The ACCUMARK TO IGES DATA CONVERSION package is an add-on product for
the Accumark product family. It provides the ability to transfer AccuMark pieces to
other CAD systems using the IGES data format.

Installation
The IGES to AccuMark Data Conversion package is automatically installed with the
AccuMark software. The IGES conversion software is a DOS based application.
Therefore, the IGES program must be run from a DOS prompt. To start the
application, open a DOS Window by selecting the Start menu followed by Run. A
dialog box will appear. Type in “cmd” and Ok to continue.

Once the DOS window appears, change to the IGES directory. In AccuMark V8 the
IGES program must be run from the IGES directory.

Note: The IGES program requires MS-DOS command experience.

The IGES directory is installed under c:\Program Files\Gerber

Technology\AccuMark V8\Iges

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 Refer to the next section to get started. The Iges conversion commands and
switches are outlined below in detail.

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Before You Start
The conversion is done based on the NBS IGES Specifications Version 4.0 . The
IGES files will be created in ASCII fixed format.

The IGES data format is designed to handle three dimensional drafting information.
The Accumark is a flat, piece oriented system. The piece data will be converted in a
two dimensional model space (i.e. the z-coordinate will always be 0).

Only one piece can be converted to one IGES data file. The piece will be translated
so that the lowest left corner of its bounding box will coincide with the origin point.
The piece name, description and category will be added beneath the lower left
corner of the bounding box.

The same data notation will be used as defined for the storage area where the
pieces are transfered from, i.e. imperial (inches) or metric (centimeters).

A discussion of the conversion strategy, and technical format issues are discussed
in the section Technical issues.

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Converting pieces
The program IGESOUT.EXE converts AccuMark piece data to IGES format in one
pass. The IGESOUT command accepts the following commandline arguments :

IGESOUT [options] <storage_area> <piece_name> <IGES_filename>

The storage_area argument indicates where the piece will be searched for.

The piece_name argument is a valid AccuMark name, wildcards are not supported.

The IGES filename argument is a valid DOS-filename. The filename extension

should be '.IGS'. If the extension isn't included, .IGS will be added.

The options argument can be put anywhere on the commandline, the parameters
have to be separated and preceded by a '/' or a '-', the option specifier is not case
sensitive.

The following options are accepted.

/? or /h : displays how to use the program.

/U<u> :overides the units specification defined used in the storage area where the
piece is transfered from.
If <u> is set to 1, data is stored in Inches.
If <u> is set to 2, data is stored in Millimeters.
If <u> is set to 10, data is stored in Centimeters.

Example:

IGESOUT SEATS BACKPANEL C:\IGES\BPANEL

converts the AccuMark piece BACKPANEL stored in the storage area SEATS to the
DOS-file BPANEL.IGS stored in the DOS-directory C:\IGES.

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Technical issues

The following IGES entities are used to represent the AccuMark piece data:

102 - Composite Curve Entity

110 - Line Entity
116 - Point Entity
212 - General Note Entity
308 - Subfigure Definition Entity
408 - Subfigure Instance Entity

All line segments in an AccuMark piece are represented by Line Entities. The Line
Entities for a specific part of the piece (for example the perimeter, or an internal )
are grouped together by a Composite Curve Entity.

Notches are represented by Line Entities, the first point defines the anchor point of
the notch (on the perimeter or internal). The Line Entity gives the direction of the
notch, it does not represent the type of notch.

Drill holes, and other one point internals, are represented by a Point Entities.

All the entities that define a piece are grouped together by a Subfigure Definition
Entity and instantiated by a Subfigure Instance Entity. The piece will be translated
so that the lowest left corner of its bounding box coincides with the origin point of the
model space.

The piece name, description and category are represented by a General Note Entity
and located on the left side below the bounding box of the piece.

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