STEP Reader
The STEP Reader provides full access to the assembly, B-rep, view and PMI data stored within a STEP file. The specific APs supported for STEP are AP 203 E1/E2 and AP214. Support for AP 242 is included however official support will not be announced until the specification is ratified. A file does not need to have a particular extension to be read correctly by HOOPS Exchange, however, the file extensions of STEP files you can expect are:
.STEP
.STP
.STP.Z
Our readers are updated to the latest released version within 90 days of the release of the authoring software. You can see the exact version supported in the current release here.
Assembly
In addition to full support of the assembly tree our STEP reader will also honor external file references including those that point to other non-STEP files.
B-rep
We provide full support for the B-rep model defined in a STEP file. Evaluators are provided to allow you to directly query these geometries.
The specific surfaces supported by STEP are:
B_SPLINE_SURFACE
B_SPLINE_SURFACE_WITH_KNOTS
BEZIER_SURFACE
BOUNDED_SURFACE
CONICAL_SURFACE
CURVE_BOUNDED_SURFACE
CYLINDRICAL_SURFACE
OFFSET_SURFACE
QUASI_UNIFORM_SURFACE
RATIONAL_B_SPLINE_SURFACE
RECTANGULAR_TRIMMED_SURFACE
SPHERICAL_SURFACE
SURFACE_OF_LINEAR_EXTRUSION
SURFACE_OF_REVOLUTION
TOROIDAL_SURFACE
UNIFORM_SURFACE
DEGENERATE_TOROIDAL_SURFACE
The specific curves supported by STEP are:
QUASI_UNIFORM_CURVE
UNIFORM_CURVE
BEZIER_CURVE
B_SPLINE_CURVE
B_SPLINE_CURVE_WITH_KNOTS
CIRCLE
ELLIPSE
PARABOLA
HYPERBOLA
COMPOSITE_CURVE
POLYLINE
RATIONAL_B_SPLINE_CURVE
INTERSECTION_CURVE
SURFACE_CURVE
Visualization
This visualization data for this format is generated by the HOOPS Exchange tessellation engine.
Views
HOOPS Exchange provides support for the SAVED VIEWS concept in STEP. We specifically support the following SAVED VIEW concepts:
DRAUGTHING_MODEL
CAMERA_MODEL_D3
CAMERA_MODEL_D3_MULTI_CLIPPING
PMI
We provide support for the graphical representation of PMI which includes a link back to the referenced entity. The specific PMI supported includes:
Datum
Datum Target
Dimension (angular)
Dimension (curve)
Dimension (diameter)
Dimension (general)
Dimension (linear)
Dimension (ordinate)
Dimension (radial)
Feature control frame
Label
Note
Roughness
Weld
Miscellaneous
Our STEP reader provides support for both user defined and validation properties defined at a part level. Also, support for compressed STEP files is included.
Our STEP reader includes a built-in healing algorithm. However, in the interest of performance, it is not enabled by default.
For shell based surface models, each body is put into a separate B-rep entity. This can be toggled using the m_bSplitSHELL_BASED_SURFACE_MODEL flag.
Import Options Specific to STEP
None
Limitations
Support for STEP AP 242 is included however it will not be officially supported until the specification is ratified.