How to convert STEP
to T-FLEX?

STEP or "Standard for the Exchange of Product model data" is also referred as ISO 10303. STEP has been initially designed with the idea to supersede the IGES format (which was the first broadly used vendor-neutral CAD file format). However even today both formats co-exist and data in IGES and STEP represent lion share of all CAD files.

Typically, STEP can be used to exchange data between CAD, CAM, CAE, PDM/enterprise data modeling and other CAx systems. STEP addresses product data from mechanical and electrical design, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, analysis and manufacturing, as well as additional information specific to various industries such as automotive, aerospace, building construction, ship, oil and gas, process plants and others.

STEP is developed and maintained by the ISO technical committee. There are also various technical groups that define usage conventions and recommended practices to ensure better interoperability between software applications. In CAD world, the most prominent group is www.cax-if.org that unites software vendors and industrial users.

ISO10303 is very extremely large and complex and is structured in multiple layers, for example, from physical file format definition (Part 21) to geometrical/topological definitions (Part 42), up to Application Protocols (AP’s) defining higher-level industry use cases. CAD Exchanger supports AP203, A214 and AP242, which are most commonly used AP's.

T-FLEX is a Parasolid-based parametric CAD software application for 3D solid modeling and 2D design and drafting, made by Russian software company Top Systems. T-FLEX CAD is developed for Microsoft Windows XP, Vista and is localized into many languages.

T-FLEX CAD is a design solution which was created for mechanical engineering. It provides drafting, modeling and assembly tools that allow engineers to develop various products, from single parts to assemblies.

T-FLEX CAD supports a wide range of operations: drawings, assembly drawings, solids, surfaces, parts, parts with multiple solid bodies, assembly models, sheet metal, bill of materials, etc.

T-FLEX CAD provides parametric, adaptive and associative technology aimed at family-of-parts manufacturers or other design situations that use similar geometry but require many different sizes or permutations. Besides parametric 3D modeling T-FLEX CAD supports parametric 2D drawings creation from scratch. Parametric 2D assemblies can be created as well by inserting parametric 2D components.