Brief review of CAD formats

CAD Import, Brief review of CAD formats

CAD data exchange involves a number of software technologies and methods to translate data from one Computer-aided design system to another CAD file format. This PLM technology is required to facilitate Collaborative Product Development (CPD) between OEMs and their suppliers.

The main topic is with the translation of geometry (wireframe, surface and solid) but also of importance is other data such as attributes; metadata, assembly structure and feature data.

Methods of translation

There are basically three methods of transferring data from one CAD system to another.

• Direct CAD system export/import. Some CAD systems can directly read and/or write other CAD formats, simply by using file open and file save as options.

• Direct 3rd party translators. There are a number of companies that specialize in CAD data translation software, providing software that can read one system and write the information in another CAD system format.

• Intermediate data exchange formats. A common method of translation is via an intermediary format. The sending CAD system exports out to this format and the receiving CAD system reads in this format. Some formats are independent of the CAD vendors being defined by standards organizations.

Level of information detail translated

As each CAD system has its own method of describing geometry, both mathematically and structurally, there is always some loss of information when translating data from one CAD data format to another.

It is therefore important when transferring data between systems to identify what needs to be translated. For example: is the data wireframe, surface, or solid; is the topology (Boundary Representation) information required; must the face and edge identifications be preserved on subsequent modification.

With product models, retaining the assembly structure may be required.

No matter what data is to be translated, there is also a need to preserve attributes (such as color and layer of graphical objects) and text information stored within the files.

CAD Format	Tessellation	BREP
ACIS	Yes	Yes
AutoDesk Inventor	Yes	Yes
CATIA V5	Yes	Yes
CATIA V6	Yes	Yes
Creo Parametric/Direct	Yes	Yes
IGES	Yes	Yes
JT	Yes	Yes
NX	Yes	Yes
Parasolid	Yes	Yes
Solid Edge	Yes	Yes
SolidWorks	Yes	Yes
STEP	Yes	Yes

Import and Export CAD data

Built upon the Parasolid geometric modeling kernel, CAD Import includes most of Parasolid's capabilities.

Parasolid combined with HOOPS Exchange CAD translation provides high success, robust import and downstream usability of multi-CAD data.

The current release supports translation of the following file formats and version:

Import
CAD Format	File extension	Version(s) supported
ACIS 1	*.sat; *.sab	Up to 2023
AutoDesk Inventor 1	*.ipt; *.iam	Up to 2026
CATIA V51	*.CATPart; *.CATProduct	Up to 2025
CATIA V61	*.CATPart; *.CATProduct	Up to 2025
Creo Parametric/Direct 1	.prt; .asm; *.neu; *.xpr; *.xas	Pro/E: Pro/Engineer 19.0 to Creo 12.4.0.0
IGES 1	*.igs; *.iges	5.1, 5.2, 5.3
JT	*.jt	Up to v11.6
NX 1	.prt	Up to NX 2412
Parasolid	*.x_b; *.x_t; *.xmt; *.xmt_txt	Up to 37.0
Solid Edge 1	.par; .asm	Up to 2025
SolidWorks 1	.sldprt; .sldasm	Up to 2025
STEP	*.step; *.stp	STEP AP203 and AP214 (Geometry only)

Export
CAD Format	File extension	Version(s) supported
Parasolid	*.x_t; *.x_b	Up to 37.0
STEP	*.stp; *.step	STEP AP203 and AP214 (Geometry only)

1 Available with CAD Import Data Exchange option.