Geometry Translators

Many analysis packages use their own proprietary geometry formats, and common formats such as CAD and tessellated surface data are not compatible with many pre-processors. Convergent Mechanical's geometry translation tools bridge the gap between these tools.

The VDA/FS and ACIS to FBD translators are bundled with the CalculiX for Windows and the Open Engineering Suite. The others are bundled with the Open Engineering Suite.

Export
Import BREP FBD IGES STEP STL VRML
ACIS - X - - - - V4
BREP same X X X X X -
IGES X X same X X X 5.3
STEP X X X same X X AP203 & AP214
STL X X X X same X ASCII & binary
VDA - X - - - - FS
- CGX 5.3 AP214 ASCII V1 & V2

Extended version

IGES:

Supports IGES versions up to and including version 5.3

Translates to BREP

Translates to STEP (AP214)

Translates to STL (A)

Translates to VRML (1.0 or 2.0)

Entities translated to FBD:

  • Points
  • Straight Lines
  • Arcs
  • B-Splines
  • B-Spline Surfaces
Translations of some public domain IGES files to FBD

STEP:

Supports STEP version AP203 and AP214

Translates to BREP

Translates to IGES (5.3)

Translates to STL (A)

Translates to VRML (1.0 or 2.0)

Entities translated to FBD:

  • Points
  • Straight Lines
  • Arcs
  • B-Splines
  • B-Spline Surfaces

Open source translators

ACIS:

This translator supports ACIS version 4 (version 7 will be available in the next release of the ACIS translator) to FBD. Originally a Perl script was written by Roland Felde. A C++ implementation is shipped with CalculiX for Windows to remove the Perl dependency. This was written by Convergent Mechanical Solutions and supports the same entities.

Entities translated to FBD:

  • Points
  • Straight Lines
  • Elliptic Curves
  • Shells
  • Bodies

VDA:

This is a tool written by Johannes Barner which translates VDA-FS of FBD

Entities translated to FBD:

  • Point
  • Circle
  • Curve
  • Surface
  • Cons