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.
An SKP file is a three-dimensional model created by SketchUp, a 3D design program. It contains a model with wireframes, shades, edge effects, and textures.
The SKP file enables conceptual designs to be created, viewed, and shared quickly and easily. When you create a new document and save it in SketchUp the SKP file is created to store the document and its contents. SKP files can also be used to store SketchUp components. Components may be made by you or another user and can be imported into an SKP document to be inserted into your model.
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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