Full Version: cannot open a STEP file

Hello, I have a STEP file sent from a customer who I believe exported it from Solidworks. When I try to open it in MoI, nothing is shown. Sadly I can't share it because of an NDA. Is there anything known, that I can try? It's a text type, and I compared it with another STEP from the same customer that I can open, and while it's different, there is nothing obviously wrong with it (although I am not very familiar with the data format so I am very likely to miss a format problem). MoI gives no error messages.

Thanks for any ideas anyone may have! I'm reluctant to ask the customer to re-export quite yet, especially as it may produce the same file.

Best,
Rachel McConnell

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Hi Rachel, it's really difficult to help without being able to test the file.

Does it open in CAD Assistant? https://www.opencascade.com/products/cad-assistant/

Another thing you can try is using CAD Exchanger to convert it to a Rhino v5 .3dm file:
https://viewer.cadexchanger.com/

Also another way to test it is with SolidWorks eDrawing viewer:
https://www.edrawingsviewer.com/download-edrawings

- Michael

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...sorry double post...

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Well after further googling, I discovered a downloadable tool from the NIST which evaluates STEP files. It is very awkward, you have to tell it the file in question, click a button that says "generate spreadsheet and viewer", and it will create and open 2 files: a spreadsheet showing the contents of the STEP file in only slightly more readable format than the text itself, and an HTML file openable in any modern browser that contains a rotatable, zoomable model of the contents of the STEP file. It mentions any errors it finds.

https://www.nist.gov/services-resources/software/step-file-analyzer-and-viewer

Perhaps this will be useful to someone.

Rachel

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Thanks for this, CAD Assistant looks very useful! I have determined the file IS incomplete or corrupted using the NIST software but this is a lot more powerful, and runs locally too.

Best,
Rachel McConnell

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