In order to import them in 3rd party CAD tools conversion is required. SOLIDWORKS, CATIA and DWG, are produced by major CAD vendors. For instance, IGES is developed by the National Bureau of Standards, while STEP is a product of CAX IF. The specifications for those formats are publicly available and maintained by companies or consortiums. Neutral file formats, like STEP and IGES, were elaborated as industry standards readable by most of the CAD modelling platforms. There are neutral, native and “kernel” CAD file formats. The defining characteristic of a CAD file is its format. It might consist of 2D or 3D data and is used by designers, engineers, manufacturers, scientists, and digital artists. Most common CAD file formats and extensionsĬAD (Computer-Aided Design) file is an output of a CAD software, containing information about a designed object.So since you are already here, go on in and enjoy! Table of content We’ve already shared a dozen blog posts on this topic, but we’d like to streamline all the information so that you could use it as a CAD files handbook.
Over the years we’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge on what CAD files can be like, what their peculiarities are, and where some of them would and would not be efficient.
