Converting an Surface Imported from 3D Studio Max into a Solid

I am writing to ask for help, from this forum, in converting a surface
into a solid.

http://www.geocities.com/wwswimming/bush_ProE__.JPG

3D studio max has a feature that allows you to use an image to displace
vertices on a plane.

in the example, a gray scale image of P. Bush was used.

I'd like to convert this surface into a solid in either Pro-E or
Solidworks.

Anybody that can help me with this, I would really appreciate it.

In Solidworks there is a "surface-fill" command, I could not find a
similar command using Pro-E help. But I was thinking "there must be a
way" !

Thanks.

 

Wash your file thru a program that will convert the polygon mesh to planar NURBS
surfaces. Rhino (mesh2nurbs command) or Acad (via IGES export) are good bets.
Don't believe (?) there's a way to do it in Pro/E. Don't expect it to "work"
like a real surface rep converted to solid. All those vertices and edges are
not meant for conventional modeling methods.

 

David is right that is how you would solidfy feature. I use Pro E all
the time at work for most of its uses. I play, tinker with Max on the
side and have gotten quiet good at it. If I was you I would create my
surface in max, save as iges, and then import to proe. Mess around with
the solidify feature, like David said if the surface is not perfect,
and max outputs some terrible surfaces, this can be very frustrating to
solidify it. I would then ask why? Why are you brieng in surface in to
proe of Bush? Do you want to cut it using a cnc?, make a mold from it?
Once I start with Max I would try to do as much with max as I could and
leave the file translation out of it. On a side note try STL they work
with less errors sometimes.

 

Has anyone looked at the jpg? Haven't seen REX or Restyle mentioned. Is there
some other way of working Facet models or features to get to a Solid?

 

thanks very much to everybody for the help.

i did the meshtonurbs process in Rhino, exported as an IGES file, Pro-E
successfully added thickness to make it a solid.

when i do "thicken" in Solidworks, i'm getting an error message.

i took the solid into One Space Designer and used it as a tool to cut 2
solids in half, leaving an imprint which would be useful in future
modelling except for one thing.

file size.

a 50 x 50 mesh worked, the larger meshes totally locked up the 3
computers involved.

i'm trying to use gray-scale photographs to allow me to model
characters for animation faster.

i'm in the process of learning Max, but i have about 15 years
experience with some solid modelling tools. basically i get more work
done faster working in a solid modeller.