File Formats

Tetra4D Converter allows you to read and write a wide variety of file formats without needing to license any additional technology. You have access to the large number of formats supported by Tetra4D Converter and can easily access newly supported formats as well as updates to existing versions through a standard interface.

Formats support includes the following but check our Supported Import & Export File Formats page for a detailed overview of the CAD formats, versions and entities supported such as Attributes, PMIs, B-rep, Tessellation and more:

Import	Export
3D Manufacturing Format (3MF)	3D Manufacturing Format (3MF)
ACIS	ACIS
Autodesk AutoCAD	FBX
Autodesk DWF	GLTF
Autodesk Inventor	IGES
CATIA V4	JT
CATIA V5	Parasolid
CATIA V6	PRC
FBX	STEP
glTF	STL
I-DEAS	VRML
IFC	Universal 3D (u3d)
IGES	X3D
JT	Wavefront
NX	PDF, 3D PDF
Parasolid
PDF, 3D PDF
PRC
ProE, Creo
Revit
Rhino 3D
SolidEdge
SolidWorks
STEP
STEP-XML
Stereo Lithography (STL)
Universal 3D (u3d)
VDA-FS
VRML
Wavefront
CATIA V5 Drawing
HP Graphics Lbrary
PostScript

The data supported by Tetra4D Converter 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 Tetra4D Converter 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 Tetra4D Converter 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. Tetra4D Converter also provides advanced functionality to control the tessellation of the model. Furthermore, Tetra4D Converter 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 Tetra4D Converter 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.

Footnotes

[1]

Tetra4D Converter reads tessellation data from certain file formats such as SolidWorks, CATIA V5, and Autodesk Inventor. For file formats that don’t contain tessellation data, Tetra4D Converter will calculate the tessellation/visualization data. Details on how Tetra4D Converter 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]

Our STEP writer supports AP203, AP214, and AP242. STPZ export is only available in the AP242 format.

[4]

FBX-DOM files are unsupported.

If you are evaluating Tetra4D Converter, you may want to get more familiar with our Supported Platforms page as well. Simply press the Next button when you are ready.