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If you mix an interest in web design with an interest in SolidWorks you get a hideous amalgamation of 3D graphics, silly phrases and coffee stains. Couple that with a frustrating inadequacy of font types and its basically pure madness.

The Problem
Adobe Flash, formerly Macromedia Flash, opened up a lot of possibilities for web development, but it was painful developing 3D vector graphics. Electric Rain came along with Swift3D, but if you’re use to working in programs like SolidWorks, it was still, but slightly less painful to create 3D geometry.

So, how do you go from SolidWorks to Flash? A few downloads and 4 steps later you’ll have just what you need.

Ok, there’s basically 4 steps:

1. Open SolidWorks File
2. Save As .3ds
3. Import .3ds
4. Generate .flv

The first step is to get your model into a format that can be used by Flash. Getting an image of your model into Flash is one thing, but getting some actual 3D data in is quite different. You’ll need some other programs to do conversions. It’s all pretty simple, but the final step can be a little tricky.

While it’s nice to have you don’t need SolidWorks to do this, just the SolidWorks model file. Ok, let’s run through it step by step.

1. Open SolidWorks File
   In Rhino, (free rhino evaluation here.) you can directly import a SolidWorks part or assembly. Very simple. Select File, Import and choose the model to wreak havoc on.
2. Save as 3ds
   Again, pretty straight forward, File, Save As… and select 3Dstudio (.3ds).

   Another way to do the last two steps is to download the free version of MoI (Moment of Inspiration Beta). Save your model in SolidWorks as an .IGS file, import it into MoI, then export it as a .3ds file.

3. Import .3ds
   In, Swift3D (free eval here) go to File, Open from 3ds and select your file.
4. Generate .flv
   Now you can do a lot more in Swift3d, like animations and rendering, but to simply get it into Flash, select the Preview and Export Editor, select Flash Movie (.flv) or another appropriate options from the pulldown on the left and hit the Export Selected Frame button all the way over on the right.

Programs you need:
Rhino (Free Evaluation)
Swift3D (Free Evaluation)

Optional (but nice to have):
SolidWorks (no free version)
MoI (Moment of Inspiration) (Free Beta)
Adobe Flash (Free Evaluation)

Those are the basics of it. You can do A LOT more with each of these apps, but this should get you off to a good start.

Video of SolidWorks Model converted to Flash

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