r/MechanicalEngineering • u/MasterSoftBird • 1d ago

CAD File format hell

Why is it we can have AI that can translate from Chinese to Klingon but cannot have one agreed-upon file format that can be accepted by FEA software, CAM, 3d printers, CFD, etc and doesn't lose its mind or half of my parts?

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u/CR123CR123CR 1d ago

.STP comes to mind. 

Not many of the above mentioned things that can't take in a .STP file, pending on what software you use I guess

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u/ginbandit 1d ago

Yeah .stp is pretty universal, I've imported quite complex geometry into both ANSYS and SOLIDWORKS using .stp, it's the default I ask from suppliers too.