Hi Steve,

> SW reads the data and places the object according to its XYZ
> coordinates, it is just a case that Z if forward and the top
> plane is X/Z.

Right, that is exactly the problem - in a 3DM file the data is defined with the Top view of the data looking at the x and y axes.

If a different application uses different axes for its "Top" view, then it will need to remap the data it reads to make the object show up the same in their application. If they just read in x, y, z with no remapping the orientations will not match.

Usually most users expect for orientations to match, not just x,y,z themselves matching but with those axes going in different directions.

- Michael