CAD Format import
Dear Blender Team, I've been working in technical documentation for years. We create our technical animations and renderings with 3D Studio Max and Blender, but we are in the process of completely switching to Blender. The only thing that lacks in Blender is the importation of CAD formats. Unreal Studio has realized that visualization is becoming more and more important in the automotive, engineering and scientific industries. This is why Unreal Data Smith was developed. I think Blender could reach out to more users if it wil open up to this field, not just focusing on art and game design. It's time to upgrade Blender with at least one STEP data importer.
Importing .stl or .obj is not an option in a professional CAD bound process. With both formats too much information gets lost. Larger projects require thousands of parts with millions of vertex. Sorting and labeling them is not possible with a reasonable effort. Therefore it is important that the groupings and designations of the individual components are preserved.
14 Comments
Time to give the technical users of Blender some proper recognition. Upvoted.
* @ Okavango * Thank u
Do you have a reference or a file specification for any STEP format... or perhaps a library with an open source compatible license?
* @Jason van Gumster * Hi Jason, I'm not a programmer. So I can't say exactly what you need. About a year ago Jaume Bellet uploaded a Youtube video showing the progress of his .stp importers. Unfortunately I think that there is a lack of time and money to continue this project. Maybe this will help you. youtube.com/watch
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_10303
* @Michael Schönholzer * You don't have to be a programmer. It's just helpful to have the ability to provide resources to the people who actually have to code this. For instance, if STEP only supports parametric data, then the data needs to be converted to something Blender understands (most likely mesh data)... because adding native support for parametric modeling is probably not going to happen.
In any case, the wikipedia article would probably be of the most use.
* @Jason van Gumster * hoi jason. Yes step is a parametric data excange format. Its a very common formart in technical industries. Most costumers send der 3d files in .stp. For sure its not possible that blender get handling parametric modeling. The files must be converted /tesseladet. I dont know if the blender developers stay in touch with other open source developer. Like the guy from Freecad or Meshlab. Coz they should pretty know how this work.
nist.gov/services-resources/software/step-class-library-scl github.com/stepcode/stepcode
Huge vote for this. I really need .stp at the very least. I could break away from modo and C4d if I could have a reliable way to get my cad models into blender.
* @mtrana * Guess e lot people could need it.
MoI 3D does it best and is very affordable. It would be great to see this in Blender though
* @ad.morris * downloded it, will try thanks...
Big vote from me! I'd like it as a sort of "read only" kind of object, being not editable, retaining the original not-mesh data, but with access to its material-groups. I doubt though that cycles could handle it... An alternative would be an importer that that takes care of the tesselation, but in this case better make it at least as good as Moi
* @ Lsscpp * have to try Moi 3D. Take care of the tesselation is for sure a important task.
* @Michael Schönholzer * Moi3D has the better tessellation results I know of. Anyway Read 3dm file and also tessellating... I guess is a too much big request! ;)
* @ Lsscpp * i wait for years of this. I dont hope its too big. Step is a very common format, and programms like C4D, Maya, 3DSMax, Meshlab... can handle it.