Help opening 3D model files.

aurivus|REVIT, 3D Studio MAX, 3D Coat, Lightwave, ZBrush, VRMesh, TopoGun, Blender, Rhino, Trimble Sketchup Etc.
Post Reply
SGartz
I have made 30-40 posts
I have made 30-40 posts
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:46 pm
12
Full Name: Stephen Gartz
Company Details: ScanView Engineering
Company Position Title: Company Director
Country: England
Skype Name: STEGartz
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: United Kingdom
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 1 time

Help opening 3D model files.

Post by SGartz »

I believe the original model from around 2000 was done in PDMS or PDS Version 7.2. I can't find any software that will open these files. The files sent apparently are a 3D model of our whole site including pipework so very valuable if we can access. Can anyone help or offer to look, we will pay for the conversion of these into Navisworks. I've attached a screenshot of the files to give you a clue, I don't recognise any of the formats.

Please get in touch at [email protected] if you can help.

Best Regards,
Stephen
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
ScanView Engineering
Stephen Gartside
Director
E: [email protected]
Bill-Wallace
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 140
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:14 pm
14
Full Name: Bill Wallace
Company Details: Leica Geosystems
Company Position Title: HDS Sr. Software Product Manager

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by Bill-Wallace »

Your screen shot of the file list does not show the file extensions. I would assume the files do have extensions and seeing those extensions are of course the key to determining what system they came from. Can you adjust your settings so you can see the file extensions?
Bill-Wallace
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 140
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:14 pm
14
Full Name: Bill Wallace
Company Details: Leica Geosystems
Company Position Title: HDS Sr. Software Product Manager

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by Bill-Wallace »

One idea is to open the files with notepad and see if there are any readable character strings in the first few lines that might indicate what system.
SGartz
I have made 30-40 posts
I have made 30-40 posts
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:46 pm
12
Full Name: Stephen Gartz
Company Details: ScanView Engineering
Company Position Title: Company Director
Country: England
Skype Name: STEGartz
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: United Kingdom
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by SGartz »

Bill-Wallace wrote:Your screen shot of the file list does not show the file extensions. I would assume the files do have extensions and seeing those extensions are of course the key to determining what system they came from. Can you adjust your settings so you can see the file extensions?
The funny thing is there are no extensions, the hidden extensions is switch on. When I open any of the files in notepad the strings are just gobbledygook to me. Thanks for the tip though.
ScanView Engineering
Stephen Gartside
Director
E: [email protected]
User avatar
colhum1
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 456
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 3:10 pm
11
Full Name: Colin Humphreys
Company Details: Warwickshire Police
Company Position Title: Forensic Collision Investigator
Country: UK
Skype Name: col.humphreys
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: Rugby

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by colhum1 »

Hi Stephen,

Looks very similar to old gaming files used to make basic pipes/cylinders/blocks etc.

Colin
"Just leave me alone. I know what I am doing" - Kimi Räikkönen
marcSW
I have made <0 posts
I have made <0 posts
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:51 am
8
Full Name: Marc
Company Details: Sweco
Company Position Title: Project Manager
Country: BELGIUM
Linkedin Profile: No

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by marcSW »

I may guess this is a PRC data set, a highly compressed 3D data format....

Kind regards,
Marc
SGartz
I have made 30-40 posts
I have made 30-40 posts
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:46 pm
12
Full Name: Stephen Gartz
Company Details: ScanView Engineering
Company Position Title: Company Director
Country: England
Skype Name: STEGartz
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: United Kingdom
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by SGartz »

marcSW wrote:I may guess this is a PRC data set, a highly compressed 3D data format....

Kind regards,
Marc
Hi Marc,

Any idea how I decompress?
ScanView Engineering
Stephen Gartside
Director
E: [email protected]
SGartz
I have made 30-40 posts
I have made 30-40 posts
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:46 pm
12
Full Name: Stephen Gartz
Company Details: ScanView Engineering
Company Position Title: Company Director
Country: England
Skype Name: STEGartz
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: United Kingdom
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by SGartz »

If anyone fancies a challenge, here is a link to the files sent through. If anyone can open this somehow and get into Navisworks I am willing to compensate!

https://we.tl/VeDEzBcIWo
ScanView Engineering
Stephen Gartside
Director
E: [email protected]
jedfrechette
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 1237
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:51 pm
14
Full Name: Jed Frechette
Company Details: Lidar Guys
Company Position Title: CEO and Lidar Supervisor
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Has thanked: 62 times
Been thanked: 220 times
Contact:

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by jedfrechette »

It looks like all of those files are actually zip files, they just don't have the extension. Here are the first few lines of the ARCHIVE.LOG file after extracting it:

Code: Select all

Parsing command line ...

Unloading ...

Unloading schema: dd_cnc9140 ...
Unloaded schema: dd_cnc9140.

Unloading tables ...
    2 rows of table: pdtable_21_31 unloaded in file: PDMrdg_equip.
    2 rows of table: pdtable_22_31 unloaded in file: PDMrdg_equip.

Unloading indexes ...
    No index has been created on table: pdtable_21_31.
    No index has been created on table: pdtable_22_31.

Unloading views ...

Unloading privileges ...
    No access privilege has been granted on relation: pdtable_21_31
    No access privilege has been granted on relation: pdtable_22_31

Run started on    : Sun Feb 20 23:00:06 2005
Elapsed time    : 00:00:02 (hr:min:sec)


Parsing command line ...

Unloading ...

Unloading schema: dd_cnc9140 ...
Unloaded schema: dd_cnc9140.
And here is part of the schema for SPMap.mdb

Code: Select all

CREATE TABLE [EntityAttributes]
 (
        [AttributeName]                 Text (50), 
        [PDSDataType]                   Integer, 
        [PDSDataLength]                 Integer, 
        [PDSCodelistNumber]                     Integer, 
        [SPItemType]                    Text (31), 
        [SPAttributeName]                       Text (255), 
        [SPDataType]                    Text (10), 
        [SPDataLength]                  Integer, 
        [SPCodelistNumber]                      Integer, 
        [Partial]                       Boolean NOT NULL, 
        [DefaultValue]                  Text (50), 
        [State]                 Long Integer, 
        [ReadOnly]                      Boolean NOT NULL, 
        [EntityNumber]                  Integer, 
        [mTimestamp]                    Text (30)
);
My guess is that the whole thing is a database archive dumped from PDS circa 2005, assuming the dates in the log are correct. By randomly unzipping a few of the other files I was able to get some .dgn files and a few other formats that could be opened, but short of a significant reverse engineering effort I would say the next thing to do is talk to Intergraph and/or Navisworks to see if there is a data migration pathway. You still might be left with trying to reconstruct all of the relationships on your own though.
Jed
SGartz
I have made 30-40 posts
I have made 30-40 posts
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 6:46 pm
12
Full Name: Stephen Gartz
Company Details: ScanView Engineering
Company Position Title: Company Director
Country: England
Skype Name: STEGartz
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: United Kingdom
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Help opening 3D model files.

Post by SGartz »

Jed, you're a genius!

I was able to rename some of the files using a Bulk renaming tool and add the .zip extension, this enabled me to extract the DGN's I need. I then converted these to NWC files for Navisworks. After a bit of a tidy up and various exports to .FBX to get rid of unwanted geometry I have managed to successfully load the full model in Navisworks! See attached, this will be of great use to us. Thanks for everyone who helped.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
ScanView Engineering
Stephen Gartside
Director
E: [email protected]
Post Reply

Return to “Modeling Software”