Importers are usually named after the CAD file format they import. For more information about an importer, click the icon to the left of the component name.
Click the respective checkbox(es) to associate specific importer file extensions with SpinFire Insight. This association allows you to open a native CAD file from Windows Explorer, starting a new session of SpinFire Insight.
In the Configure column, the Options buttons open a dialog box that feature settings for each importer (e.g., Attributes and Tessellation Level and Type). Each importer has its own set of unique options. A few examples of common option settings are
Whether or not to import metadata from the native CAD file.
Whether or not to search recursively in specified directories.
The precision of trimesh approximation.
Document types: 3D or 2D or both.
Whether or not to import PMI data.
When you mouse over a setting title, an description of the setting is displayed in a tooltip.
After you have made desired changes in the dialog box, be sure to click the OK button.
All Options
In the All Options, your changes will apply to one or more importers at the same time.
Document types Sets the type of documents to import from the CAD File. The choice is Only 3D, Only 2D or Both
B-rep Mode Sets the import mode for B-Rep Data in the CAD File
Tessellation levels can be set using predefined presets:
Extra Low, Low, Medium, High, and Extra High.
Extra Low → Coarse visualization with fewer triangles, optimized for performance.
Extra High → High-fidelity visualization with dense triangulation, which may affect performance on large models.
You can also fine-tune tessellation behavior using the Advanced Tessellation Options.
Chord Height Ratio – Ratio of the tessellation chord height to the model’s bounding box height. Typical range: [50 – 10,000].
Chord Height Limit – Maximum distance between the true surface and its tessellated approximation. This value determines how tightly the tessellation follows the original geometry.
Note: Very small values can create excessive triangle counts and increase loading time.
Unit: This value is expressed in the model’s native unit system (for example, millimeters, inches, or meters).
Maximum allowed angle (in degrees) between two consecutive segments of the tessellation. Typical range: [10 – 40].
Lower values produce smoother curves but result in heavier meshes.
Accurate tessellation uses a different computation method designed for use cases where tessellation quality is critical, such as CAD data conversion for 3D printing, manufacturing, or analysis.
This mode ensures higher geometric fidelity and a more consistent triangle distribution across curved and complex surfaces.
Accurate tessellation works with the same parameters as standard tessellation — including the Chord Height Ratio, Chord Height Limit, and Tessellation Angle Tolerance — and adds optional parameters that provide more control over how tessellation points are distributed on surfaces, allowing for more regular, uniform, and analysis-ready triangles.
Use Curvature – Increases triangle density along curved areas to better capture the geometry’s shape.
Grid Aligned – Inserts tessellation points following a grid layout, resulting in more uniform and predictable triangle patterns.
Construction Entities Mode - Whether and how to import construction entities. You can use the Datum setting to determine whether to import them.
Datum - Whether datums are visible.
Dimension Tolerance - Whether to import dimension tolerances.
Exploded Views - Whether to create additional views, with each view representing an explode state.
Family Table Source - The source for Family Tables. You can use B-rep available in Accelerator files (.xpr and .xas). Or if B-rep is not available use tessellation. Or always import, even if no tessellation and no B-rep is available, in which case a wire generic entity will be imported.
Home View - Whether to create an additional home view.
Missing Boolean - Whether to import the entities making up a boolean operation.
Missing Flexible component - Whether to try to import a flexible component, even in the case where the tessellation for the component cannot be found.
Session Colors - The session color to use for PMI in Wildfire files which have no color. You can use the default session color for the latest version of Creo supported or the default session color or the default PMI color.
Field Name - The field to get the assembly or part name from, for a STEP file. You can either use the name from the item, or the ID of the next item reference or the name of the next item reference or the description of the next item reference.
First Color Preference - Whether to prefer the first color if geometry has several colors, for a STEP file.
Orientation Healing - Whether to heal face orientations. Setting to true will improve volume and weight calculations at the cost of longer loading time.
Shell Based Surface Model Splitting - Whether to split shell based surface models with several open shells into several bodies. Each logical body is put into a separate B-rep entity if set to true.
Validation Properties - Whether to import validation properties.
Active Filters - Whether to only import data from the active filter in the CAD File.
Configuration - Specifics which configurations to load.
Default Unit - Sets the units to use for a CAD File if it is not well defined. This option is restricted to those formats where unit never exists ort is unreliable (U3D, CGR, STL, VRML)
Feature Trees - Whether to import feature trees that represent all the steps that have been taken in a CAD Design system to create the final part.
Generate Missing Edges - Whether to generate missing edges.
Random Colors - Whether to assign a random color to a part when it’s color information is missing.
Sew - Whether to sew the model after importing it.
Sew Tolerance - The tolerance to use for sewing the model after importing it.
