Its not a secret trick, nor is it a bug, and also not version dependent. There is a license setting which controls this option. I cannot explain why LouisD has it set. I would still like to hear more about why there is a need to export a CAD model which was previously imported.
Whilst I can only speak for myself, that functionality would have saved me a great deal of time for one of my projects. We were updating some tooling fixtures that were created over a decade ago, at a different facility, in a different state.
The original CAD models had long since been lost in a digital sea between the dozen or so engineers in that department over the years. So I found myself with an old program which contained an imported model, and needed that model to be exported so it could be updated in a CAD software to our current revision. Since I didn't have the option I just remodeled it from scratch based on the numbers in the old DMIS program, then updated it all and re-imported it. Starting with an IGES would have made things just a tad faster!
Whilst I can only speak for myself, that functionality would have saved me a great deal of time for one of my projects. We were updating some tooling fixtures that were created over a decade ago, at a different facility, in a different state.
The original CAD models had long since been lost in a digital sea between the dozen or so engineers in that department over the years. So I found myself with an old program which contained an imported model, and needed that model to be exported so it could be updated in a CAD software to our current revision. Since I didn't have the option I just remodeled it from scratch based on the numbers in the old DMIS program, then updated it all and re-imported it. Starting with an IGES would have made things just a tad faster!
