Export a Light Model

When you want to release your model so that information about the manufacturing process is included as little as possible, export a light model. A lightened model consists only of surfaces and is a sort of space reservation model. Note that the model is missing faces, which means that this kind of model can not be cut in a sensible manner, for example.

Export a light model as follows:

  1. Open the Vertex document in the working window.
  2. Select >  Export. More options...Less options...
    • (OR) Select >  Save As New >  Save As.
    • (OR) Move the cursor over the part label in the feature tree or in the assembly tree, and select Other Functions > Export.
  3. Select the folder, in which you wish to save the light model.
  4. Select the file type in which you wish to save the light model in the field Save as type.
    • SAT Model
      • In the Save as type field, select ACIS Files (*.sat).
      • In the Revision field, select ACIS 28.0 Light model.
    • STEP Model
      • In the Save as type field, select STEP Files (*.stp;*.step).
      • In the Revision field, select Light model.
  5. If necessary, rename the file.
  6. Select Save.

Only visible faces are saved in the light model. As default the program views the model from the six main directions and saves the faces visible from these directions. If too many faces are missing from the model, you can add more view directions so that more faces are saved. You can enable more view directions by setting the keyword layoutsaveexpandviews=1.

You can lighten the model further by filtering out small surfaces. By setting the keywordlayoutsavesizelimit=raja the program filters out from the model surfaces whose any dimension is no larger than limit. For example settinglayoutsavesizelimit=100 the program filters out from the model surfaces whose any dimension is no larger than 100 mm.