Supported Formats

Table of Contents

• Format List
• Supported Scope
  • Level of Details
  • Validation properties
  • External files

Format List

Supported formats

Format	File extensions	Import	Export	Scope
3D PDF	*.pdf	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors and materials
3D XML schema version 4.0 - 4.3	*.3dxml	Yes	No	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors
3DS (Windows only)	*.3ds	Yes	No	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors, materials, textures
3MF	*.3mf	Yes	No	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors and materials
ACIS-SAT R2.0 - R33.0 (2023 1.0.1)	*.sat, *.sab	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations assembly structure names user-defined properties colors
BRep	*.brep	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations assembly structure
CATIA V5R16 - V5R32	*.CATPart, *.CATProduct	Yes	No	B-Rep representations polygonal representations assembly structure (via external files) names user-defined properties colors graphical PMI
Collada v1.5 and earlier	*.dae	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors and materials
Creo 2.0 - 9.0	*.prt.*, *.asm.*	Yes	No	B-Rep representations assembly structure (via external files) names colors graphical PMI
DXF AutoCAD 2013 and earlier	*.dxf	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations B-Rep representations (stored in ACIS sections) assembly structure names colors and materials
DWG AutoCAD 2000 - AutoCAD 2002, AutoCAD 2007 - 2018	*.dwg	Yes	No	polygonal representations B-Rep representations (stored in ACIS sections) drawings assembly structure names colors and materials
FBX	*.fbx	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors, materials, textures
GLTF v2.0	*.glb, *.gltf	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors, materials, textures user-defined properties
IFC 2x3 and 4 (up to 4.3)	*.ifc	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations assembly structure names user-defined properties colors layers
IGES up to 5.3	*.igs, *.iges	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations assembly structure names user-defined properties colors layers
Inventor 2015 - 2024	*.ipt, *.iam	Yes	No	B-Rep representations assembly structure (via external files) names colors
JT from 8.0 to 10.5	*.jt	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations polygonal representations (incl. multi-LODs) assembly structure, including via external files names user-defined and validation properties PMI colors and materials layers
NX 5 - 2306	*.prt	Yes	No	B-Rep representations polygonal representations (incl. multi-LODs) assembly structure (via external files) names graphical PMI colors
OBJ	*.obj	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations colors, materials, textures
Parasolid-XT v0.15 - v35.1	*.x_t, *.x_b, .xmt_txt, *.xmt_bin, .xmp_txt, *.xmp_bin	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations assembly structure names user-defined properties colors layers
PLY	*.ply	Yes	No	polygonal representations colors and materials
PRC	*.prc	Yes	No	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors and materials
Revit 2018-2022	*.rvt	Yes	No	B-Rep representations assembly structure names user-defined properties colors
Rhino v1 - v7	*.3dm	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations polygonal representations assembly structure names colors, materials, textures layers
Solid Edge 17 - 2023	*.par, *.psm, *.asm	Yes	No	B-Rep representations assembly structure (via external files) colors
SolidWorks 2004 - 2023	*.sldprt, *.sldasm	Yes	No	B-Rep representations polygonal representations (except for versions 2004, 2007 and 2008) assembly structure (via external files) configurations names user-defined properties graphical PMI (version 2015 and higher) colors
STEP AP203, AP214, AP242	*.stp, *.step	Yes	Yes	B-Rep representations polygonal representations assembly structure, including via external files names user-defined and validation properties PMI colors layers
STL (text and binary)	*.stl	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations
U3D 1st ed.	*.u3d	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors and materials
USD	*.usd *.usda *.usdc *.usdz	No	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors and materials
VRML v1/1995, v2/1997	*.wrl	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure names colors, materials, textures
X3D	*.x3d	Yes	Yes	polygonal representations assembly structure colors, materials, textures names user-defined properties

Supported Scope

Depending on format capabilities, CAD Exchanger SDK is able to support:

• exact geometrical data (e.g. circles, planes, NURBS curves and surfaces, etc);
• topological bodies (solid, sheet, wireframe, acorn) and elements (shells, faces, edges, etc);
• polygonal representations (meshes), including multiple level of details (LOD's);
• 2D drawing geometric data (curves), annotation data (dimensions, hatches) and structure data (sheets and views);
• product structure information (assemblies, parts, instances);
• meta-data (names, user-defined properties, validation properties);
• PMI (Product and Manufacturing Information);
• visual attributes (colors, materials, textures, line styles);
• layers.

Formats have different capabilities and may not support some scope items. For instance, the simplest formats (such as STL) are only able to store polygonal representations and are not capable to contain precise geometries in the form of B-Rep representations.

The following sections explain some supported scope items.

Level of Details

Level of details (LOD) is a mechanism to associate multiple polygonal representations to the same part (or body). Polygonal representations may differ in the level of detailization, from higher quality (fine) LOD to lower level (coarse) LOD.

Validation properties

Validation properties are used to store measurement information computed on the 3D model in the sending system, so that the receiving system could re-compute these properties on the imported 3D model and compare with those stored in the file. Thus would allow to validate the quality of conversion. Validation properties include:

• bounding box;
• surface area;
• volume;
• center of gravity.

External files

Mechanism of external files is used to represent assembly structures when external files can be used to represent either individual parts (leaves of the assembly graph) or sub-assemblies. The mechanism allows to either exchange component(s) of the large assemblies or to improve performance by deferring loading of sub-assemblies or parts until first request.