STEP File Importation

[Benny]

Customer interested in “STEP file importation” He is familiar with stl, jpeg, dxf’s, but says he is interested in knowing if Denford machine / software can use “STEP file Importation” i.e. a STEP file from CAD directly to the machine or is there some other process. STEP files normally contain 3D geometry data of solid models.

Any idea?
Thank you.

[cncbasher]

Benny,

the file would need to be imported into a 3d drawing package and then manipulated to produce gcode etc .

if you need more info , or if we can help etc .

Dave

[Denford Admin]

I understand STEP is a more advanced way of describing 3D geometry than STL.
It would involve a lot of work for Denford to implement STEP import and I wonder what benefit there would be ?
I would say that 99% of 3D modelling packages can output STL files, so why not use that when it works so well ?
Adding support for a complicated file format would be prone to import errors.
When using CAM software, the STEP model would be broken down into simple triangular faces for tool path calculations anyway. Any extra 3D information (I'm guessing- face loops, material mapping, construction parameters, planes, object groups etc..) is not required for CAM processing.