CAD Updater (Pro)
Updating (reimporting) CAD Data
Last updated
Updating (reimporting) CAD Data
Last updated
With CAD Updater you can compare a newly imported CAD file with the current CAD file in your Unity project. For comparison, both CAD data are imported into different sub-game-objects into the same scene.
The CAD Updater supports imports from CADLink and custom sources like PIXYZ. Note that part IDs for comparison are automatically generated based on the CAD design path (e.g., 'Assembly2|Subassembly3|Part1'). For successful CAD updates, ensure that part names remain unchanged and the part structure is not reordered.
For custom imported data, the CAD Updater must be applied to the top level of the existing CAD data. Specify both the Current CAD Data (CAD Current) and the Update Data (CAD Update). It's crucial that the structure and naming below CADCurrent and CADUpdate remain identical (except for added or deleted parts). Once set up, click "Compare Current with Update" to review detected changes. Use the "Isolate Buttons" to inspect changes in detail. If everything checks out, select "Update" to apply the changes. Please refer to the section below for more detailed information about CADUpdater.
CAD Updater is automatically added to the CADLink component as soon as you import a CAD file a second time. After the second import the following message will pop up:
CAD Updater script is automatically added:
After the update import, the comparison between the current and the new CAD data is started automatically. You can restart it manually with the Button Compare Current with Update.
The Isolate Buttons allow you the see in detail what has been changed in the Update.
On the left-hand side of the Unity Hierarchy View, you can see a status icon that is informing you about the status of the CAD component.
Green Hook
No changes
Red Cross
Is deleted in Update
Blue Plus
Is added in Update
Orange !
Mesh is changed
Orange Arrows
Position is changed in Update
After the update check, you can update your current CAD data by selecting Update. All changes will be performed on the current CAD data and the update import will be deleted. Your current CAD data will now be like the Update but all changes that you performed within Unity/realvirtual.io will remain.
Each component in the CAD design will have automatically added a CAD script. This script takes care of the current status and you can control exactly the Update behavior.
By selecting Keep or Keep Including Children you can Keep the current object (including the children if selected) and it will not be touched by the Update process.
If there is no relation found between the Current and the Update CAD data it could be that something is marked as to be deleted but you want to keep and update this. You can manually generate a relation by dragging an Update CAD Script into Keep and Replace by Update. This will manually set the IDs of the Update and the Current Identical and the Update will be performed.
If you are using for reading in the CAD Data the CAD Updater component will be attached automatically to the parent Gameobject of CADLink as soon as you are updating your CAD data. All properties and options of CAD Updater are set automatically. Update means that there are already CAD data underneath CADLink and you import new CAD data. If you don’t want to perform an update you should delete all data underneath CADLink before importing a new CAD file.
For Step and 3MF data there are some limitations with the CAD Update. Each mesh is defined by an ID and compared with the newly imported mesh. Because there are no special ID and revision properties inside the Step or 3MF data (like with JT), the ID of each part is defined by its location in the hierarchy and an occurrence number if there are two identical names at the same hierarchy level. This means that you should not rearrange elements (changing parents) under the CADLink object. Instead, you should use the script for rearranging the kinematic parents and children.
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