CAD Loaders for modo - Interactive Geometry Translator Plug-ins for modo 601
The CAD Loaders for modo are ideal for designers, engineers, product visualization specialists and 3D generalists who need to bring specific industry-standard CAD data formats into modo for visualization or design. As you import these formats, the CAD Loaders give you interactive control in modo over how geometry is tessellated and provide efficient methods for accommodating incoming CAD files with many repetitive elements.
CAD Loaders for modo Overview
The CAD Loaders are based on Parasolid© — an industry-leading geometry kernel with associated APIs for translating Parasolid's XT data format and other popular industry formats.
The CAD Loaders are available in two configurations, Advanced and Basic:
- Advanced CAD Loader includes the Parasolid (.x_t and .x_b), IGES (.igs and .iges) and STEP (.stp and .step) file loaders.
- Basic CAD Loader only includes the Parasolid (.x_t and .x_b) standalone file loader.
Import these CAD formats into modo
Parasolid is the world's leading 3D solid modeling component software used as the foundation of Siemens PLM's NX and Solid Edge products. This geometric modeling kernel is also used in many other 3rd party Computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), Computer-aided engineering (CAE), Product visualization, and CAD data exchange packages. A Parasolid file commonly has the extension .x_t and the binary version is .x_b. Siemens estimates that Parasolid XT data files represent over 40% of all 3D model data stored worldwide. Parasolid files are supported by the Basic and the Advanced versions of the CAD Loader for modo Plug-in.
IGES (The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification) is an ANSI standard file format which defines a vendor neutral data format that supports the digital exchange of information among Computer-aided design CAD, Computer-aided manufacturing, and Computer-aided engineering systems. IGES files up to 5.3 are supported by the Advanced CAD Loader for modo Plug-in.
STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product model data) files are an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. Officially it is known as ISO 10303. STEP can be used to exchange data between CAD, Computer-aided manufacturing, Computer-aided engineering systems. STEP files of type AP203 and AP214 are both supported by the the Advanced CAD Loader for modo Plug-in.
Key Features
The CAD Loaders for modo, in addition to loading the specified CAD formats, also provide control over how geometry is imported and to give you options for handling large files with repetitive elements:
Interactive surface tessellation
You can opt to load in a lighter Open GL representation of your incoming CAD data, which can can then be tessellated interactively by adjusting settings on a per-item or group basis after loading them into the scene. Once the desired tessellation parameters are determined you can save the item to a mesh. This ability to apply different tessellation during a session is possible because the incoming surfaces are maintained as parametric surfaces by the Parasolid kernel during import.
Optimized mesh results
For your resulting mesh, you can choose between Convex (mixed quads and triangles) and Quad NGon (mixed quads and ngons). Since not all CAD files are alike, you can set parameters like Distance Tolerance, Angle, Minimum and Maximum Edge length to optimally tessellate the data coming into modo. This lets you import files that might have been unreadable/unusable before, and lets you quickly arrive at the best settings for the particular dataset and use you have in mind.
Instance handling
Many CAD models have repetitive geometry elements. If your imported file contains instances, they can be loaded as copies, instances or replicators in modo. This can greatly reduce memory use and boost interactivity.
Static mesh option
Normally, you will use the CAD Loaders to save to a mesh representation but an additional option is to save it as a static mesh. Static meshes in modo are specially constructed lightweight representations of polygonal data which cannot be edited but can be rendered.
Licensed Parasolid Technology
The CAD Loaders for modo are based on Parasolid© — an industry-leading geometry kernel with associated APIs for translating Parasolid's XT data format and other popular industry formats. The Parasolid Communicator component licensed by Luxology includes boundary representation import and advanced surface and topological interrogation support.
