Overview
HOOPS Exchange allows you to read and write a wide variety of file formats without needing to license any additional technology. You work through a standard interface, so once you complete an integration, you have access to the large number of formats supported by HOOPS Exchange and can easily access newly supported formats as well as updates to existing versions.
The writers are often used by developers to speed the development of integrating the HOOPS Exchange technology into their application. For example, if you are a Parasolid or ACIS based application you can use our XT or SAT export to export the B-rep definition of the model.
Below we detail the specific capabilities of each reader and writer in addition to detailing any other relevant features and limitations.
HOOPS Exchange File Readers
The data supported by the HOOPS Exchange readers can be broken down into six primary categories:
- Assembly data: The full assembly tree is provided. The information includes the names of each component, their colors and transformations and whether a specific component is hidden. Support for instances, external references and configurations is provided. The HOOPS Exchange technology also allows you to work in a special mode which allows you to load and unload components in an assembly. This allows you handle massive assemblies on a broad range of hardware.
- B-rep: The complete topological and geometric definition of the model is provided. The geometry can be presented in its native form and a full set of evaluators are provided or the user can ask HOOPS Exchange to post-process the data to adapt it to the destination system. Items that can be done during this poso-processing includes splitting periodic surfaces, sewing surfaces (particularly important for IGES), computing UV/3D curves and approximating surfaces to B-spline surfaces.
- Views: The definition of views including the filters it applies to the model is included. For some formats the definition of a View can extend to more sophisticated concepts like cutting planes and exploded views.
- PMI: We provide Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) in both a visual and semantic form. In the visual form the data provided allows you to perfectly recreate how the model looked in the authoring system. In the semantic form the PMI is presented in much more management data-structures which enable developers to use this PMI to easily implement advanced functionality within their application.
- Visualization: All the information is included so that you can recreate the exact visual representation that was presented in the authoring application. HOOPS Exchange also provides advanced functionality to control the tessellation of the model. Furthermore, HOOPS Exchange can provide direct access to the visualization data if it was stored in the file which can dramatically improve file loading speeds.
- Miscellaneous: In addition to the information above the HOOPS Exchange technology provides access to a variety of other pertinent information such as construction geometry, persistent IDs, face names, coordinate systems, layer/filter settings, and user defined attributes. The specifics of each of these are detailed in each format's guide.
The information for each type of file is reviewed in the page specific to the corresponding reader. For a brief summary of the capabilities of each reader, see the supported file formats table.
HOOPS Exchange File Writers
HOOPS Exchange includes a number of writers. These writers are used to either implement export capabilities within an application or to facilitate the quick integration of HOOPS Exchange readers into an application. In this second case developers often have a model converted to ACIS, Parasolid or STEP and then import that data into their system. This allows developers to easily get the B-rep model definition into their system. When you are exporting the data HOOPS Exchange often has to translate or modify the data in order to adapt the data to the geometrical model of the destination system. The modifications that occur are detailed in the format specific document.
The information for each type of file is reviewed in the page specific to the corresponding writer. For a brief summary of the capabilities of each writer, see the supported file formats table.