# Basic Operations

Integrating HOOPS Exchange into your application typically falls into one of two categories: direct integration or indirect integration.

A direct integration means parsing entities to access CAD data (assembly tree, B-Rep, mesh, PMI, views, metadata) and storing it directly in PRC format.

An indirect integration means parsing entities to access CAD data, but writing the geometry and mesh to a different geometrical kernel (Parasolid, ACIS, Open Cascade).

Initializing HOOPS Exchange
  Walk through the steps of initializing HOOPS Exchange’s API in your projects.
Simple Load and Export
  Learn how to load CAD files into memory and export them to different formats.
PRC
  Understand the PRC data model and how to traverse the assembly tree to access model data.
Building PRC
  Create PRC structures programmatically to build models from scratch.
Using Progress Functions
  Monitor long-running operations using progress callbacks.

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