File Formats

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.

Supported file formats. In blue, both import and export are supported. In grey, only import is supported.

Supported Import Formats

Below, we detail the specific capabilities of each reader and writer in addition to detailing their supported general features:

Format	Version	Extensions
3MF	1.2.3	3MF
ACIS	Up to 2023	SAT, SAB
AutoCAD - 2D	Up to DWG 2018 (RealDWG 2021)	DAE
AutoCAD - 3D	Up to AutoCAD 2019	DWG, DXF
Autodesk 3DS	Any	3DS
Autodesk DWF	Any	DWF, DWFX
Autodesk Inventor	Up to 2024	IPT, IAM
Autodesk Navisworks	From 2012 to 2024	NWD
Catia V4	Up to 4.2.5	MODEL, SESSION, DLV, EXP
Catia V5	Up to V5_6R2023	CATDrawing, CATPart, CATProduct, CATShape, CGR
Catia V6 / 3DExperience	Up to V5-6 R2019 (R29)	3DXML
COLLADA	Any	DAE
Creo - Pro/E	Pro/Engineer 19.0 to Creo 10.0	ASM, NEU, PRT, XAS, XPR
DGN 5	7	DGN
FBX	ASCII: from 7100 to 7500, Binary: All	FBX
GL Transmission Format	Version 2.0 only	GLTF, GLB
I-deas	Up to 13.x (NX 5), NX I-deas 6	MF1, ARC, UNV, PKG
IFC	IFC2x Editions 2, 3 and 4	IFC, IFCZIP
IGES	5.1, 5.2, 5.3	IGS, IGES
JT	Up to v10.9	JT
NX - Unigraphics	UG11 to UG18, UG NX, NX5 to NX12, NX1847 to NX2306	PRT
Parasolid	Up to 35.1	X_B, X_T, XMT, XMT_TXT
PDF	All Versions	PDF
PRC	All Versions	PRC
Revit	2015 to 2023	RVT, RFA
Rhino3D	From 4 to 7	3DM
Solid Edge	1 to 20, ST1 to ST10, 2019 to 2023	ASM, PAR, PWD, PSM
SolidWorks	From 97 up to 2023	SLDASM, SLDPRT
STEP	AP 203 E1/E2, AP 214, AP 242	STP, STEP, STPZ
STEP/XML	Any	STPX, STPXZ
Stereo Lithography (STL)	All Versions	STL
U3D	ECMA-363	U3D
VDA-FS	Version 1.0 and 2.0	VDA
VRML	V1.0 and V2.0	WRL, VRML
Wavefront OBJ	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

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 more 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.

Supported Export Formats

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
3MF	1.2.3	3MF
ACIS	5.0	SAT, SAB
IGES	5.1	IGS, IGES
FBX 6	7400, ASCII or Binary	FBX
GLTF	2.0	GLTF, GLB
JT 2	8.1, 9.5, 10.0	JT
Parasolid 3	12.1	X_T
PRC	Latest	PRC
STEP 4	AP 203 E2, AP 214 E1, AP 242 E1	STP, STEP, STPZ
Stereo Lithography (STL)	Any	STL
U3D	ECMA-363	U3D
VRML	1.0 and 2.0	VRML
Wavefront OBJ	Any	OBJ

Legend

= Supported
= Partial or variable support
= This concept is not supported by this format
/ = 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 JT writer supports JT 8.1, 9.5 and 10.
3: Exporting tessellation data is only possible using the Parasolid bridge (not available on macOS).
4: Our STEP writer supports AP203, AP214, and AP242. STPZ export is only available in the AP242 format.
5: Our DGN reader is currently provided as an alpha version
6: FBX-DOM files are unsupported.