What file formats are best for CAD data in small design teams?

I’ll give my two cents from the exhibit industry, and I think this can translate to any other areas as well. When talking about solid body design software, STEP files are my favorite because they seem to be the most universal. The hierarchy does not carry over though. One that a lot of people don’t know about is Parasolid. This retains the hierarchy of the bodies without keeping the feature data. It has its uses where particular post-model edits need to be made in another program. Then there’s 2D. This is interesting because if you know anything about graphic design, your design repertoire can be expanded by experimenting with .svg, .ai, .dwg, and .dxf in AutoCAD or Illustrator interchangeably.

File formats are entirely based on your CAD design software, or the software you plan to use with your partners. Before anything else, lock down which CAD software is best for you, your team, your product, your manufacturer, etc.

Die Herangehensweise an Vereinfachungen von Konstruktionsdaten ist immer aus mehreren Blickwinkeln zu betrachten. Ein Beispiel ist der Detailierungsgrad eines simplen Kreises (Loch on einem K?rper) ein Lieferant ben?tigt h?ufig nur die exakte tolerierte Lage eines Loches und die Beschreibung dazu (Gewindeloch, Durchgangsloch, etc.) deshalb k?nnten in Lieferantenmodellen die Kreise/L?cher abstrahiert werden z.B.: Kreis wird zu einem 10- oder 20-Eck (Ausreichend zur Reduzierung der Datenmenge). Ein Designer ben?tigt für das Gleiche Teil einen hohen Detailierungsgrad zur Darstellung eines Bildes für Vertrieb oder ?hnliches. Anforderungen an die Daten müssen daher klar beschrieben sein.

Native file formats are almost always going to be your best option when sharing among team members or manufacturing partners. Although all CAD software can export to neutral, those neutral files will lose certain properties which might be critical to design, engineering, modification, or manufacturing. That is why it is best to stay within your preferred CAD software solution native format when working among peers. As mentioned above, ensuring you have chosen the right software for your product and product business is going to be the most important first step.

The best format to be able to share in local and/or business partner groups is the used CAD software orijinal format which belongs to the software not any other common formats. As general format for sure STEP AP203/214/242 formats are the safest formats. Parasolid is a good format for sharing between Dassault Systèmes group CAD softwares as well.

Yeah I would agree. I only have some input on this because recently I finally got one of the new prototype machines. It’s an AnyCubic actually, and it would only take an IGES file. Which I thought was really weird because in all the other people I work with, no one asked me for an IGES file. Usually it’s a step or an STL.

In my experience, when using a standard format, I typically utilize STL, STEP, and IGES. The choice largely depends on the application you intend to use subsequently and the extent of support provided by the respective tools, equipment, or software. Some formats excel with STL but may not perform as well with other formats.

No matter how you store your CAD files (local, PLM, or cloud) ensure you are building a well-designed folder hierarchy that is appropriate for your business. Then ensure you have, at a minimum, cloud backups of that data. As you grow into larger teams, ensure you set up strong revision history and sharing permissions.

Die sicherste und bevorzugte Variante zur Datenspeicherung von Konstruktionsdaten ist ein Administriertes PLM System, welches in Verbindung mit der Konstruktionsumgebung steht. Damit ist die Administrative Sicherung der Daten m?glich und wird h?ufig mehrfach in einem Hierarchiesystem gemanagt. Ein Export wird dann nur n?tig um mit Lieferanten und Kunden zu kommunizieren. In einem übergeordneten PLM-System k?nnen auch ?nderungsmanagement, ?nderungskonstruktion und Weiterentwicklungen sicher abgebildet werden. In meinem Arbeitssystem wird über dem noch Qualit?tsvorgaben an die Konstruktion und das ?nderungsmanagement umgesetzt und geprüft. Damit wird sichergestellt, dass nachfolgende Prozesse klar von der ?nderung in Kenntnis gesetzt werden.

Using the same parametric CAD software among the team is always best to speed up the development process. It is easier for others to modify the CAD, although everyone could draw the same piece differently. So, the file format depends on which CAD software you are using. However, some designs, such as character figures or jewelry, cannot be solely done with parametric CAD software, that again depends on the tools the team familiar with. In general, a STEP file is used to communicate with a third party to finalize the design for manufacturing.