STL (STereoLithography) is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD software. This file format is supported by many other software packages; it is widely used for rapid prototyping, 3D printing and computer-aided manufacturing. STL files describe only the surface geometry of a three-dimensional object without any representation of color, texture or other common CAD model attributes. The STL format specifies both ASCII and binary representations. Binary files are more common, since they are more compact.
PTC Creo by Parametric Technology Corporation, known as Pro/Engineer is a 3D CAD, CAM, CAE, and associative solid modeling application. It provides solid modeling, assembly modeling, 2D orthographic views, FEA, direct and parametric modeling, sub-divisional and NURBS surface modeling, and tools for mechanical designers. Its users are mostly mechanical engineers, designers and manufacturers. The app runs on Microsoft Windows.
The application is based on the parametric modeling approach, which means that it uses parameters, dimensions, features, and relationships to enable design automation and optimization of design and product development processes. Companies with family-based or platform-driven product strategy make use of this approach for what they need to perform successful design processes is a prescriptive design strategy.
The capabilities of the product can be split into three main groups, that is Engineering design, Analysis and Manufacturing. Product design processes include the ability to generate geometry of other integrated design disciplines such as industrial and standard pipe work and complete wiring definitions. Creo has numerous analysis tools which help with the development of the product which include human factors, manufacturing tolerance, mould flow and design optimization. As for manufacturing, the app has tooling options for molding, die-casting and progressive tooling design.
PTC Creo file extensions are .prt and .asm.
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.
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