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I'm relatively new with Altium Designer and I'm trying to export a pcb to a STEP model in order to build a chasis in solidworks, but when I export it, there are missing parts. Let the images guide you:

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The fisrt is from Altium and the second from Solidworks. When exporting, I have tried this already: 1- Reloading every generic3D models in the pcb library. 2- Every exporting settings or options have been tried. 3- Cried a lot, nothing's changed.

Nothing on the web has helped me yet. Thank you. \ \ EDIT#1:

I have done some changes, corrected all the errors (don't know if it is linked) but now I get this message of error: enter image description here

The problem is that the unsupress button, in the view panel is geryed out... Can't do nothing but do nothing.

PyThagoras
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    This is a long shot, but check that the step models are embedded in the footprints. – Spehro Pefhany Aug 29 '17 at 21:13
  • Yes, they are all embedded. – PyThagoras Aug 29 '17 at 21:38
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    Are the vanished parts openable is SW as direct imports? –  Aug 29 '17 at 22:05
  • When you export to STEP from Altium did you make sure to check "Export all" (or whatever the actual label is) under the section for mechanical models? – DerStrom8 Aug 30 '17 at 01:05
  • @DerStrom8 , yes I did, everything is suppsed to export and I selected "export all", not "import selected". – PyThagoras Aug 30 '17 at 02:20
  • @user287001 I will try that out in a few moments, but the question remains, why does it disepear in the first place? – PyThagoras Aug 30 '17 at 02:21
  • @user287001 Importing in solidwork does work, but in the future, if many other components cant be directly import, it will be really frustrating. Let's say it is a provisory solution. – PyThagoras Aug 30 '17 at 03:05
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    If your circuit is not secret, consider to provide a download link to your problematic design and the step export. Someone have a possiblity to try them. Now you get guesses and workarounds. –  Aug 30 '17 at 03:42
  • You need to right-click the suppressed components in the feature tree and tell it to unsuppress from there. – DerStrom8 Aug 30 '17 at 10:53

2 Answers2

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We do such imports (Altium -> STEP -> SWX) all the time and never ever did we get such error message (some boards have ~2k parts). Try changing the 3D Model for the connector to .. say .. an extruded Box in your library, then try to export it again. I have a feeling that the model might be faulty.

Also, make 100% sure that you're not using a variant in Altium and double check that your OutputJob settings for the 3D STEP export are set to "No Variants" so it exports all parts. At least for this try.

Tom L.
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Thank you your replies, but it was not exactly what solved my problem. I'll share my findings:

1- If it happens to someone, look first of all if all your models on altium are already in STEP, because they HAVE to be. The models that disapeared for me were SLDPRT (solidwork parts). I changed them to STEP and everything worked, but one of the pieces was still missing.

2- sometimes, solidworks decides that an assembly is too complex and supresses some parts. To forbid solidworks from doing that you need to go to the template file of the part/assembly file located in: ProgramData/SolidWorks/Templates. Open thoses files and go in the properties tab on the left. In advanced options, uncheck to "Supress new component" box. Save it all and start loading your file again.

Those two steps solved it for me. Thank you!

PyThagoras
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