IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification) was among first vendor-neutral CAD formats designed to enable interoperability between different CAD systems. The latest versions of IGES have been approved by ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and published by US PRO (U.S. Product Data Association). The latest officially approved version of the IGES standard is version 5.3 which was published in 1996. Nonetheless, IGES remains a broadly used format (along with STEP) supported by all major CAD/CAM/CAE systems such as CATIA, Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks, Solid Edge, NX, Pro/Engineer, Creo and multiple others. IGES files usually have *.igs or *.iges file name extensions.
ASM (Solid Edge Assembly) is one of the data file types used by Solid Edge CAD software. The files with .asm extension contain 3D parts (.prt) which consist of assemblies. ASM by itself, does not contain geometric information – it stores only the rules for connecting parts.
ASM (Solid Edge Assembly) also has no connection with assembly language, though this also uses an .asm extension.
Among CAD applications that support ASM extension are PTC Creo and Autodesk Fusion 360.
A CAD file is an output of a CAD software, containing key information about the designed object: its geometry and topology representation, 3D model hierarchy, metadata, and visual attributes depending on the format of the file.
Read moreCAD Exchanger enables RapidSense and RapidPlan to read 3D CAD formats thanks to a unified API, fast data processing, adjustable meshing, and cancellation support.
Read moreWe will start a series of a blog posts dedicated to different 3D CAD file formats. We begin with the veteran among CAD data - IGES.
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