File Formats
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 up 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 writer 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 main 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. During the post-processing step, it’s possible to split periodic surfaces, sew surfaces (particularly important for IGES), compute UV/3D curves, and approximate 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 manageable data structures that 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.
Version Support
While reading CAD data, HOOPS Exchange identifies the format and version. If the version is not supported by our reader, the associated error code is sent back:
A3D_LOAD_FILE_TOO_OLD if the input format is too old for HOOPS Exchange
A3D_LOAD_FILE_TOO_RECENT if the input format is too recent for HOOPS Exchange
As of version 2019, this functionality is available with below formats:
Autodesk Inventor
CATIA V5
Creo - Pro/E
GL Transmission Format
JT
NX - Unigraphics
Revit
Rhino3D
Solid Edge
Solidworks
U3D
Detailed information for each file type can be found by clicking the name of the file format in the table below.
Format |
Version |
Extensions |
Supported Platforms |
Tess 1 |
BREP |
PMI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1.2.3 |
3MF |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to 2021 |
SAT, SAB |
|
|
|
|
|
Any |
3DS |
|
|
|
|
|
Any |
DWF, DWFX |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to 2024 |
IPT, IAM |
|
|
|
|
|
Autodesk Navisworks |
From 2012 to 2023 |
NWD |
|
|
|
|
Up to 4.2.5 |
MODEL, SESSION, DLV, EXP |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to V5_6R2023 |
CATDrawing, CATPart, CATProduct, CATShape, CGR |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to V5-6 R2019 (R29) |
3DXML |
|
|
|
|
|
Any |
DAE |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to DWG 2018 (RealDWG 2021) |
DAE |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to AutoCAD 2019 |
DWG, DXF |
|
|
|
|
|
Pro/Engineer 19.0 to Creo 9.0 |
ASM, NEU, PRT, XAS, XPR |
|
|
|
|
|
ASCII: from 7100 to 7500, Binary: All |
FBX |
|
|
|
|
|
Version 2.0 only |
GLTF, GLB |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to 13.x (NX 5), NX I-deas 6 |
MF1, ARC, UNV, PKG |
|
|
|
|
|
IFC2x Editions 2, 3 and 4 |
IFC, IFCZIP |
|
|
|
|
|
5.1, 5.2, 5.3 |
IGS, IGES |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to v10.6 |
JT |
|
|
|
|
|
7 |
DGN |
|
|
|
|
|
UG11 to UG18, UG NX, NX5 to NX12, NX1847 to NX2206 |
PRT |
|
|
|
|
|
Up to 35.1 |
X_B, X_T, XMT, XMT_TXT |
|
|
|
|
|
All Versions |
|
|
|
|
||
All Versions |
PRC |
|
|
|
|
|
2015 to 2023 |
RVT, RFA |
|
|
|
|
|
From 4 to 7 |
3DM |
|
|
|
|
|
1 to 20, ST1 to ST10, 2019 to 2022 |
ASM, PAR, PWD, PSM |
|
|
|
|
|
From 97 up to 2022 |
SLDASM, SLDPRT |
|
|
|
|
|
AP 203 E1/E2, AP 214, AP 242 |
STP, STEP, STPZ |
|
|
|
|
|
Any |
STPX, STPXZ |
|
|
|
|
|
All Versions |
STL |
|
|
|
|
|
ECMA-363 |
U3D |
|
|
|
|
|
Version 1.0 and 2.0 |
VDA |
|
|
|
|
|
V1.0 and V2.0 |
WRL, VRML |
|
|
|
|
|
Any |
OBJ |
|
|
|
|
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, below.
Format |
Version |
Extensions |
Supported Platforms |
Tess |
B-rep |
PMI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1.2.3 |
3MF |
|
|
|
|
|
5.0 |
SAT, SAB |
|
|
|
|
|
5.1 |
IGS, IGES |
|
|
|
|
|
7400, ASCII or Binary |
FBX |
|
|
|
|
|
2.0 |
GLTF, GLB |
|
|
|
|
|
8.1, 9.5, 10.0 |
JT |
|
|
|
|
|
12.1 |
X_T |
|
|
|
|
|
Latest |
PRC |
|
|
|
|
|
AP 203 E2, AP 214 E1, AP 242 E1 |
STP, STEP, STPZ |
|
|
|
|
|
Any |
STL |
|
|
|
|
|
U3D |
ECMA-363 |
U3D |
|
|
|
|
1.0 and 2.0 |
VRML |
|
|
|
|
|
Any |
OBJ |
|
|
|
|
Legend
= Supported
= Partial or variable support
= Unsupported
= This concept is not supported by this format
= This file format provides tessellation data 1
/ 
= Windows
/ 
= Linux
/ 
= macOS
/ 
= Android
/ 
= iOS
Footnotes
- 1(1,2)
HOOPS Exchange reads tessellation data from certain file formats such as SolidWorks, CATIA V5, and Autodesk Inventor. For file formats that don’t contain tessellation data, HOOPS Exchange will calculate the tessellation/visualization data. Details on how HOOPS Exchange generates visualization data is included in the Visualization section on the page of each individual file format.
- 2
Our SolidWorks PMI reader is limited.
- 3
Our JT writer supports JT 8.1, 9.5 and 10.
- 4
Exporting tessellation data is only possible using the Parasolid bridge (not available on macOS).
- 5
Our STEP writer supports AP203, AP214, and AP242. STPZ export is only available in the AP242 format.
- 6
Our DGN reader is currently provided as an alpha version
- 7
FBX-DOM files are unsupported.
