Technical Overview

HOOPS Exchange is an SDK designed for the development of 3D engineering applications that require access to and re-use of 3D data created by CAD and BIM design applications.

Through a single interface, HOOPS Exchange facilitates the Import, Adapt, and Export of 3D data from more than 30 native and standard formats, including:

  • MCAD space: CATIA, NX, Creo, SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, Solid Edge, JT, STEP, glTF, OBJ, 3MF, IGES

  • AEC/BIM space: Revit, Navisworks, IFC, and DWG

HOOPS Exchange can seamlessly integrate into various applications in the CAD, CAE/Analysis, CAM, Manufacturing as a Service, CMM, PLM/Viewing, Digital Factory, Architecture, Civil Applications markets and more. It addresses a variety of needs and workflows, encompassing Visualization, Design, Analysis, Document Management, Collaboration, Design Review, Quotation, 3D Printing, Manufacturing, AR/VR, and beyond.

Featuring a versatile structure capable of handling diverse data types available in these different formats, HOOPS Exchange supports Assembly and Parts structures, Exact Geometry : Boundary Representation (B-Rep) - Tessellation, Configurations, Meta-Data, Product Manufacturing Information (PMI), Views, Markups, Design Features, and more.

HOOPS Exchange is a highly customizable API available on different platforms, designed to seamlessly integrate into your application, whether utilizing a modeling kernel or not. It offers a set of geometric functions for querying your models and adapting the geometry to meet your requirements. The API can generate various types of Tessellation, repair, sew, heal inconsistent geometries, adapt Brep definition & surfaces for reuse by different modelers. Additionally, it can evaluate and project points on surfaces, compute Physical Properties, and can be paired with third-party libraries such as geometric kernels (Parasolid, ACIS, OpenCascade) or Mesh Repairs API (Polygonica) to enhance your market needs and workflow.

Finally, HOOPS Exchange allows you to export your 3D model in memory to the most common standard formats, including STEP, JT, 3D PDF, STL, glTF, and more.

If you are interested in knowing more about HOOPS Exchange, let’s go to the page Evaluating HOOPS Exchange.