Catia .MODEL File

5_On_CNC

Does anyone know of a way to open or translate a Catia .model file?
We are needing to translate on over to a step file or something workable and haven't had any luck!

MichaelPascoe

Unless you have a Catia license so you can export it as step directly from Catia, you may have to try a 3rd party like CAD Exchanger. I haven't tried them, but they claim to be able to convert Catia V5 to step.

fst

Can Onshape import any format that retains the construction history? And are there converters that can convert usual CAD formats to that target format, keeping the history intact?

MichaelPascoe

@fst

No, this would have to be done with 3rd party software like SolidTranslate. ST only supports SolidWorks and Onshape at the moment, but if there is enough interest or funding we will add other software to it.

Here is a list of Onshape's supported import formats, none of which keep the feature history: https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/translation.htm

Onshape does have a collection of Direct Editing tools like Move face, Delete face, Modify fillet, which allow you to easily modify imported geometry.

fst

Thanks for the feedback! A common exchange format like STEP, but with history support is imho greatly missing!

S1mon

@fst
That's a bit like saying wouldn't it be great if there was one computer programming language that everyone would use. Due to the way the mathematics of NURBs surfaces work, we're lucky that STEP is relatively stable and well defined. Getting all CAD programs to use compatible parametric history is pretty unlikely.

Or another way to look at it:

fst

Most current formats with history support don't even try to be a standard. Propriety, not publically documented, fiercely defended. The closest is perhaps the FcStd format from FreeCAD. But that is also not inherently designed as a minimalistic common denominator exchange format.