Release Notes

CAD Exchanger 2.0

Contents
What's New
Introduction
Supported Formats
System Requirements
Installation Notes
Known Limitations
Disclaimer and Legal Information

What's New in 2.0

General:

Added support of new format X3D.
Increased performance due to broader use of multi-threading on multi-core systems.

SDK:

Added support for MacOS and Linux.
New more streamlined API:

More structured and explicit set of reader and writer classes (e.g. IGES_Reader and ACIS_Writer).
Added mesh data model and converter from shape to mesh model.
Added XDE-based data model that wraps Open CASCADE XDE/OCAF.
User-defined settings (see Base_Settings).

Improved user experience:

Added SDK Developer's Guide and Installation Guide.
Added new examples demonstrating use of CAD Exchanger SDK.

ACIS-SAT format:

Enabled multi-threaded conversion.
Added support of name attributes.
Added support of free vertices (not belonging to edges) into exporter.

STL format:

SDK now produces smaller ASCII files due to more compact form of the vertex and normals coordinates.
GUI: Fixed bug of writing incorrect number triangles when exporting surface models into binary STL format.

For a full list of changes please refer to the CHANGES file.

Introduction

The CAD Exchanger application (GUI and CLI, or Command Line Interface) provides an environment for importing, visualizing and exporting 3D models in different CAD formats. Evaluation of version 2.0 may be used until June 30, 2011, for production license please send an email to info@cadexchanger.com.

GUI and CLI are based on CAD Exchanger SDK (Software Development Kit), a set of software libraries, that can be integrated into customers' applications to enable conversion of supported CAD formats.

This document provides system requirements, installation instructions, known limitations, and legal information. The latest version is available online.

To get support on product use or to provide feedback about it please visit the users' forum at http://www.cadexchanger.com/forum. To request additional information please send an email to info@cadexchanger.com.

Supported Formats

Currently the CAD Exchanger application supports the following CAD formats:

Format	File extensions	Importer	Exporter
IGES 5.3	.igs, .iges	Yes	Yes
STEP AP203, AP214	.stp, .step	Yes	Yes
ACIS SAT (R1.5 - R20.0)	*.sat	Yes	Yes
STL	*.stl	Yes	Yes
VRML 2.0 (1997)	*.wrl		Yes
X3D	*.x3d		Yes
BRep	*.brep	Yes	Yes

The up-to-date list of supported formats is displayed on the Start Page when the CAD Exchanger starts.

System Requirements

Common requirements (GUI, CLI, SDK):

A PC based on an IA-32 architecture processor (Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor 1GHz or faster). Multi-core system is recommended for better performance;
1 GB RAM (2GB or more recommended);
256 MB free disk space;
Microsoft* Windows XP*, Windows Vista*, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003*, or Windows Server 2008*.

SDK-specific requirements:

Compilers: Visual Studio 2005 SP1, 2008 SP1 (Windows); gcc 4.x (Linux and MacOS)

Installation Notes

Before installing a new version you must uninstall a previous version.

Once you have downloaded the installation executable, double-click on it to begin the installation.

The default installation directory is C:\Program Files\CAD Exchanger.

To uninstall the product, open the Control Panel and select the Add or Remove Programs applet, select "CAD Exchanger" and click Remove.

Known limitations

Common:

Depending on a previously imported model, export may give no result. For instance trying to export to IGES or STEP a model imported from STL will produce no result. User's notification will be implemented in the future releases.
Exporting to a format and importing back may lead to loss of data. In most cases this can be due to format limitations. For instance, exporting a colored surface model into STL will lose information on exact geometry (NURBS, cylinders, etc) and colors. Such a model imported back will be represented as a set of triangles of one single color.
File names may not contain non-ASCII symbols.

IGES and STEP:

Visibility status of the model in the Model Explorer is ignored when exporting.
IGES currently supports only ASCII characters for author and company in the file header.

VRML and X3D:

GUI and CLI currently only export Surface models and their faces geometry. Mesh models, free points and curves of Surface models as well as colors are ignored. SDK can export both Surface and Mesh models.

ACIS:

File units are ignored, the model is translated as if it were in millimeters;
Files created with ACIS version prior to R1.05 are not supported;
lawcur, lawsur, offsetintcur, tapersur, edgetapersur, swepttapersur, shadowtapersur, ruledtapersur entities are translated using their spline approximation. If they do not have full approximation, entities are not translated;
The exporter writes into a file header default values of spatial tolerance (1e-7) and angle tolerance (1e-12) regardless of real model accuracy.
Visibility status of the model in the Model Explorer is ignored when exporting.

Disclaimer and Legal Information

This software is provided "AS IS" WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE WARRANTY OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.