3DEXCITE converters and file formatsOverview Guide

3DEXCITE DELTAGEN User Guide page 1

LICENSE CONDITIONS AND COPYRIGHT

3DEXCITE converters and file formats

License conditions and copyright

© Dassault Systemes 3DExcite GmbH 2000 – 2017

This documentation and the software it describes are distributed under license only and must not be used or copied except in accordance with the conditions of the associated license agreement. The contents of the manual are for information only and may be modified at any time. Dassault Systemes 3DExcite GmbH („3DEXCITE“) bears no liability. 3DEXCITE is not responsible or liable for any errors or impreciseness in this documentation.

This documentation may only be copied in part or whole, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any other form, in compliance with the license agreement. The documentation must not be transmitted electronically, mechanically, as a recording, or in any other form, without the previous written permission of 3DEXCITE.

3DEXPERIENCE, the Compass icon, the 3DS logo, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA, BIOVIA, NETVIBES, 3DSWYM and 3DEXCITE are commercial trademarks or registered trade-marks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.

Note that graphics you wish to integrate into a project may in certain circum-stances be subject to copyright conditions. The unauthorized integration of graphics into your documents may represent an infringement of the owner's copyright. Ensure that you first obtain the copyright owner's permission. Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the USA and other countries. Apple, PowerBook, QuickTime, Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. in the USA and other countries. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat and Acrobat Reader are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All other product names are registered trademarks of other companies.

3DEXCITE gives no guarantee other than in the accompanying license agree-ment, either expressly or implicitly, for the sales suitability or competence of a specific application of these materials and provides these materials exclu-sively in their current form. 3DEXCITE cannot be held liable to any person for accidental or indirect loss or damage arising from the purchase or use of these materials.

All rights for the translation of this publication are held by 3DEXCITE.

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CONVERTERSIMPORTING FOREIGN FILES

3DEXCITE reserves the right to revise or change its products according to its own discretion.

This publication describes the state of this product at the time of its publica-tion and is under no liability to agree with future versions of the product.

DELTAGEN is protected by the US Patent numbers 7,973,790 and 8,013,857; and when used in combination with Siemens PLM Software Teamcenter US Patent number 8,682,464.

Certain portions of the Dassault Systemes 3DExcite GmbH products are based on 3rd party products and are copyrighted by their owner. Please see document “Acknowledgements” in the installer.

This work contains software owned by Siemens Product Lifecycle Manage-ment Software Inc. ©1986 - 2013.

JT™ is a trademark owned by Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Soft-ware Inc.

Converters

To import your geometry, DELTAGEN is equipped with different converters.

You do not need a CAD license for software like CATIA to use the built-in converters. For some converters you need a dedicated converter license which is issued by 3DEXCITE. To determine which converter is of most use to you, see "3DEXCITE file formats" and also see "External file formats".

RELATED LINKS:3DEXCITE file formats

External file formats

Importing foreign files

CONTEXT

To import your geometry, DELTAGEN is equipped with different converters.

PROCEDURE

1. Select FILE > OPEN to import a new scene.

2. Alternatively select FILE > INSERT to integrate the selection into the current scene.

RESULT:

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CONVERTERSCONVERTER OPTIONS

Depending on the selected file format you wish to import, a special converter dialog opens.

Converter options

For different formats the converter dialog appears with the following options. Note that not always all options are available.

STRUCTURE

STRUCT BY LAYER structures the scene by layers.

STRUCT BY TOPOLOGY structures the scene by topology.

STRUCT BY COLOR structures the scene by material color.

STRUCT BY TOPOLOGY AND COLOR OPTIONS

• PRESERVE STRUCTURE

• TOPOLOGY TOLERANCE

– STANDARD

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CONVERTERSCONVERTER OPTIONS

– MODELING

LAYER

Layer Filter explicitly specifies the layers whose objects are to be converted. If you leave the field empty, all layers are converted. The input syntax is as follows:

• SINGLE LAYERS, for example: 121,125,141 separated by commas

• LAYER RANGES, for example: 121-141

• or a mix of single layers and layer ranges, for example: 121,132,145-151

OBJECTS

KEEP NURBS SURFACE NORMAL prevents the automatic alignment of the normals of adjacent surfaces. The normals are taken from the original file.

CONVERT CURVES reads in 3D lines.

CONVERT ONLY POLYGONS specifies that only polygons are read. These cannot be tessellated later in DELTAGEN.

NOTE: If NURBS data exists, only NURBS and no polygons are imported. If LODs exist, only the finest LOD level is imported.

CONVERT ONLY VISIBLE OBJECTS specifies the layers from which objects are to be read. If this feature is disabled, all objects are accepted. If it is enabled, objects of no-show layers are not accepted.

INTEGRATE LINKED FILES converts assembly structure files. Loads and inte-grates linked files in the .csb file.

HEAL OBJECTS adjusts geometry by removing gaps between shapes. When this function is selected, any gaps in the geometry to be loaded are repaired so that tessellation produces a smooth, unbroken topology. However, conversion of these files takes longer.

DELETE DUPLICATE FACES removes duplicate faces within a body.

ICEM SURF SYMMETRY gives the option to choose whether or not the imported ICEM geometry should be mirrored on XZ axis plane. This option is available when opening .icem files in DELTAGEN or when converting .icem files within DELTABATCH.

• AS REFERENCE

• AS COPY

• DO NOT MIRROR deactivates the mirroring.

LOOK LIBRARY automatically assigns materials from the default Look library to imported data in order to have the possibility to quickly visualize design models in high quality. You can choose a look library of already opened look libraries and choose one from disk.

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DELTAGEN DIRECT JT™ CONVERTERCONVERTERS WITH COMMON IMPORT SETTINGS

Converters with common import settings

In the following you find a list of converters with the same import settings as described in see "Converter options".

• DELTAGEN Direct Catia V4

• DELTAGEN Direct Catia V5

• DELTAGEN Direct Pro/E

• DELTAGEN Direct Unigraphics

• DELTAGEN Direct Autocad

• DELTAGEN Direct Iges Import

• DELTAGEN Direct Step

• DELTAGEN Direct Solidworks (Solidworks assembly files .sldasm and Solidworks part files.sldprtare supported.

• DELTAGEN Direct Rhino

– STRUCTURE:

STRUCT BY LAYER

STRUCT BY TOPOLOGY

STRUCT BY COLOR

STRUCT BY TOPOLOGY AND COLOR options

– OBJECTS:

KEEP NURBS SURFACE NORMAL

CONVERT CURVES

DELETE DUPLICATE FACES

DELTAGEN Direct JT™ Converter

To import your geometry DELTAGEN is shipped with different converters. One of them is your Direct JT™ Converter. No CAD license is needed to use the build in converters.

NOTE: For this particular converter you need a dedicated converter license for Direct JT™ import and Direct JT™ export. These are issued by 3DEXCITE.

In DELTAGEN, you can open JT™ formats up to version 10.0. The following data will be transferred:

• Polygons

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DELTAGEN DIRECT JT™ CONVERTERDELTAGEN DIRECT JT™ IMPORT - CONVERTER OPTIONS

• Textures of polygons in the JT™ files are imported as base textures (type in the Look editor: embedded://<name>). The textures will be saved DELTAGEN conform as files next to the.csb file.

• JT™-Nurbs

• XT-BREPS

• Metadata

• DELTAGEN Direct JT™ Import - Converter options

DELTAGEN Direct JT™ Import - Converter options

NOTE: When you import JT™, the UV coordinates are kept only if you select only Polygons. If you import NURBS, the UVs are lost. Metadata is kept.

STRUCTURE

STRUCT BY LAYER structures the scene by layers.

STRUCT BY TOPOLOGY structures the scene by topology.

STRUCT BY COLOR structures the scene by material color.

STRUCT BY TOPOLOGY AND COLOR OPTIONS

• PRESERVE STRUCTURE

• TOPOLOGY TOLERANCE

– STANDARD

– MODELING

OBJECTS

KEEP NURBS SURFACE NORMAL prevents the automatic alignment of the normals of adjacent surfaces. The normals are taken from the original file.

CONVERT CURVES reads in 3D lines.

CONVERT ONLY POLYGONS specifies that only polygons are read. These cannot be tessellated later in DELTAGEN.

NOTE: If NURBS data exists, only NURBS and no polygons are imported. If LODs exist, only the finest LOD level is imported.

INTEGRATE LINKED FILES converts assembly structure files. Loads and inte-grates linked files in the .csb file.

DELETE DUPLICATE FACES removes duplicate faces within a body.

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DELTAGEN DIRECT MAYADELTAGEN DIRECT JT™ EXPORT

DELTAGEN Direct JT™ export

NOTE: Importing very large monolithic JT™ files as well as exporting very large scenes as a monolithic JT™-file might bring an unknown error. Splitting the DELTAGEN scene before exporting as JT™ file can solve this issue.

If you export a scene to a JT™ file, polygon and NURBS data, cameras, looks (no external CgFX shaders), structure data and metadata are saved.

EXPORT TEXTURESsaves the textures when exporting as JT™.

• SAVE IN FILE DESTINATION FOLDER saves textures in the specified destina-tion folder.

• SAVE IN SUBFOLDER saves textures in the specified subfolder.

NOTE: Textures in JT™ files can only be loaded with DELTAGEN. File links are not supported!

DELTAGEN Direct Maya

DELTAGEN Direct Maya is the interface integrated into Autodesk Maya® in order to import and export the bidirectional data exchange with DELTAGEN data in .csb format. Your 3DEXCITE DELTAGEN SUITE offers this interface with DELTAGEN HUB. The interface can process .csb data in pure polygon format or with exact geometry (NURBS).

NOTE: Only Maya® V8.5 or higher supports Windows® XP 64x and thus DELTAGEN Direct Maya.

Visibility of Autodesk Maya® nodes is supported when saving .csb files from within Autodesk Maya®.

In order to get the same visual result, shear transformations specified in Autodesk Maya® get flattened on export to.csb. That means that the scene subtree at the first encountered shear transformation will not have any trans-formations in DELTAGEN as well as no references.

RELATED LINKS:Activating the DELTAGEN Direct Maya or Maya Tools plug-in

Importing and exporting files in Maya®

Options dialog in DELTAGEN Direct Maya

Maya Tools

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DELTAGEN DIRECT MAYAACTIVATING THE DELTAGEN DIRECT MAYA OR MAYA TOOLS PLUG-IN

Activating the DELTAGEN Direct Maya or Maya Tools plug-in

CONTEXT

Before you can use the DELTAGEN Direct Maya or Maya Tools interface, you have to activate the corresponding plug-in.

PROCEDURE

1. In Maya®, select WINDOW > SETTINGS/PREFERENCES > PLUG-IN MANAGER.STEP RESULT: The PLUG-IN MANAGER dialog opens.

2. Depending on the Autodesk Maya® version used, enable for the respective RTTDirectMaya.mll for DELTAGEN Direct Maya or RTTMayaTools.mll for Maya Tools plug-in and if necessary select auto load.

3. Click CLOSE to exit the dialog.

Importing and exporting files in Maya®

CONTEXT

In order to import or export .csb files within Maya® you need to proceed as follows:

PROCEDURE

1. In Maya®, select FILE > IMPORT or alternatively for the export:• EXPORT ALL

• EXPORT SELECTED

2. For FILE TYPE select CSB_3DEXCITE.

3. Select OPTIONS in the SELECTION dialog box or open the OPTION window.STEP RESULT: The OPTIONS dialog opens.

4. Set up your Import/Export within the Options dialog, see "Options dialog in DELTAGEN Direct Maya".

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OPTIONS DIALOG IN DELTAGEN DIRECT MAYAGLOBAL OPTIONS FIELD

Options dialog in DELTAGEN Direct Maya

The OPTIONS dialog in DELTAGEN Direct Maya allows you to specify your import options.

Global options field

TREAT CSB UNITS AS ensures that the size of a model, taking account of the model unit used in DELTAGEN, is correctly converted into centimeter units for Autodesk Maya®.

It is not important which option you choose as long as the same option is used for both import and export. With the same option selected, the model in DELTAGEN will have the right size. If different settings are used for import and export, the model size changes.

The resulting size of the model after import into Autodesk Maya® is important for some Autodesk Maya® functionalities like clipping planes for cameras or when using lights or textures.

MM makes a unit from DELTAGEN 0.1 cm in Maya®.

CM makes a unit from DELTAGEN 1 cm in Maya®.

M makes a unit from DELTAGEN 100 cm in Maya®.

MESSAGE LOGGING writes a log of the import or export procedure.

Export options field

NODE TYPESexports lights, textures, normals and/or creates color per vertex. The options for textures and normals should normally be enabled.

VERTEX NORMAL TOLERANCE combines vertices with the same or similar names in a specific tolerance range.

Export animation options field

WRITE ANIMATION FILE creates an animation file in the VRML format WRL. All the animations appearing in the Autodesk Maya® file are written to one file that can be loaded as an animation file in DELTAGEN.

KEY FRAMES: selecting USE ANIM CURVES exports the key frames of the anima-tion only. The program always interpolates linearly between the key frames. This does not correspond to the Autodesk Maya® animation if the interpola-

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OPTIONS DIALOG IN DELTAGEN DIRECT MAYAIMPORT OPTIONS FIELD

tion type of the tangents is not set to linear. If this option is disabled, the animation is exported with the correct frames. Then the frames of the anima-tion are viewed and exported in even step-widths. Which frames are used as key frames is irrelevant.

STEP specifies the size of the step with which the frames of an animation are exported. You can specify this value only if the USE ANIM CURVES option is disabled. All frames, including key frames, are used. With a step value of 10, 100 frames are exported from an animation described with 1000 frames in Autodesk Maya®.

RANGE CONTROL: selecting LOOP exports the animation in an infinite loop.

START / ENDspecifies the start and end key frames of the animation.

FRAMES PER SEC specifies the number of frames per second at which the animation is to be played back.

CREATE INITIATORcreates the possibility to start the animation in DELTAGEN with one key.

KEY specifies the key with which the animation is started in DELTAGEN.

ANIMATE VERTICESexports also the vertex animations that can be used in DELTAGEN. If enabled, you cannot enable OPTIMIZE VERTICES.

OPTIMIZE ANIMATED VERTICES ensures that in mesh animations, vertices with the same position are combined in the geometry. This results in smaller .csband (particularly).wrlfiles.

NOTE: Do not use this function if vertices with the same positions initially move away from each other during the animation.

Import options field

IMPORT LOD CHILDREN

ALL imports all LODs from objects. The LOD switches are copied in Maya®.

BY INDEXimports only one of several LOD levels of objects.

LOD INDEX specifies which of the LODs is imported by objects.

SHADOWS

IGNORE SHADOW UVSspecifies that the UV set of the template shadow textures is not loaded to Maya®.

NAMES

APPEND UNIQUE NODE IDappends an identification number to the object name of all objects. DELTAGEN objects with the same name receive a unique name in Autodesk Maya®.

OBJECTS

IGNORE HIDDEN OBJECTS imports only visible objects to Autodesk Maya®.

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MAYA TOOLSMAYA TOOLS MENU

NOTE: Tip for exporting UV sets to DELTAGEN: Only the UV sets map1 and shadowUVs are exported to DELTAGEN, irrespective of the currently selected UV set in Autodesk Maya®. The name of the UV set must correspond exactly to these names. If necessary, rename a generated UV set or copy the layout to a correspondingly named UV set.

IMPORT CAMERASimports cameras saved in the.csb.

GEOMETRY CLEAN UP runs a Maya® geometry cleanup following import.

Maya Tools

The Maya Tools provide practical functionalities that help you to format data in Autodesk Maya®.

NOTE: Maya Tools needs an installation of Autodesk Maya® 2010-2017.

Maya Tools menu

When you activate the plug-in, the Autodesk Maya® menu MAYA TOOLS is available.

FLATTEN TRANSFORMS resets all transformation values to 0. This tool is approx-imately the equivalent of the Autodesk Maya® FREEZE TRANSFORMATIONS func-tion or the DELTAGEN function FLATTEN TRANSFORMS. However, Maya®'s FREEZE TRANSFORMATIONS function does not take vertex normals into account, which destroys shading. The Maya tool gets around this problem by converting the normals. This can, however, lead to problems with larger polygon sets. In that case, user Flatten transforms in DELTAGEN.

POLY SEPARATE separates the selected polygons from an object. For this purpose, select the faces of a polygon object. The Maya tool deletes these faces from the object and creates a new object consisting of these deleted polygons.

RASTERIZE divides selected polygon objects along the XYZ axis. The default value is a unit of length. Other values can be set by calling this function in the script editor: rtt_rasterize -cx 1.0 -cy 5.0 -cz 10.0.

PNG CAMERA IMPORT imports camera information contained in the bitmap to create a scene camera or a camera flight.

IMPORT MODES

SINGLE MODE imports a single camera

IMAGE SEQUENCE MODE imports a camera flight using individual images, merging all cameras to one with keyframes.

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3DEXCITE FILE FORMATSMAYA TOOLS MENU

BATCH opens a dialog to specify the source path for the camera to import. You can select the images to import and confirm with IMPORT PNGS.

PNG CAMERA EXPORT opens a dialog to enter the export options.

• START FRAME and END FRAME

• TARGET FOLDER specifies the destination folder.

• TRANSLATION, ROTATION and SCALE OFFSET can also be entered.

• EXPORT RANGE to saves the .png sequence into the specified destination folder.

POLY CUT TOOL inserts polygon edges in overlapping polygon objects (two or more objects). You can set an offset value by which the inserted edge is shifted from the actual intersecting line.

HELP opens the help.

ABOUT shows the version number.

3DEXCITE file formats

3DEXCITE Software uses different file types and formats for exchange and storage of your 3D models and their assets.

Those file types depend on the kind of data you want to save, how you want to store it or what your further workflow is with these files. This chapter describes the different 3DEXCITE file formats.

Supported file formats for import and export

The following list gives a short overview which 3DEXCITE and external file formats are supported by your DELTAGEN ROBOT, HUB or STAGE package.

Supported import formats:

• .csb

• .3xf

• CAD import (.model, .exp, .catpart, .catproduct, .cgr, .nx, .igs, .iges and .ProE)

• .dwg

• .3dm

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3DEXCITE SCENE FILE .3XFMAYA TOOLS MENU

• CATIA 3DEXCPERIENCE (.xpdmxml)

• .plmxml

• .stl

• .3dxml

• .sldprt/.sldasm

• .fbx

• .stp

Supported export formats in DELTABATCH - DELTAGEN ROBOT:

• .csb

• .3xf

• .stl

• .igs,.iges

Supported export formats in DELTAGEN HUB:

• .csb

• .3xf

• .fbx

• .stl

• .igs,.iges

Not supported import formats:

• .icem, .rms, .assembly, .wire, .xml, .x_t

Not supported export formats:

• .iv,.jt, .mb, .obj, .pmlxml

3DEXCITE Scene file .3xf

The 3DEXCITE Scene file format .3xf gives you another possibility to effi-ciently save and store your data.

You can use the.3xf format within DELTAGEN 13.0 and onwards.

NOTE: The .3xf format does not support Analyzer objects and has no downward compatibility DELTAGEN versions prior DELTAGEN 13.0!

The.3xf format is designed for your daily work. This format offers you:

• a high compatibility: you can load data saved in future implementations of the.3xf file format in DELTAGEN versions down to DELTAGEN 13.0.

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COSMO BINARY FILE .CSBMAYA TOOLS MENU

• improved save performance depending on the scene because the save mechanism of this format offers faster save of your changes in the scene

• reduced file size depending on scene due to compression algorithm, hence data which you save in this format gets compressed, allowing a more efficient storage usage

The .3xf format saves the following components:

• scene

• materials

• geometry

• fx objects

• light collectors

• light emitters

• variants

• animations

• logic networks

• assignment tables

ASSEMBLIES and LINKED FILES are also supported.

Cosmo Binary file .csb

3DEXCITE DELTAGEN and 3DEXCITE DELTAVIEW work by default with Cosmo Binary files (.csb).

NOTE: The downwards compatibility of .csb files to earlier releases of DELTAGEN and DELTAVIEW can not be guaranteed!

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COSMO BINARY SESSION FILE .CSBSMAYA TOOLS MENU

Assembly handling for the .csb format is also supported. Assemblies that refer to other .csb files can be read in and managed.

Cosmo Binary Session file .csbs

The session file stores all data that are required to restore a scene.

The models can be embedded in the session file or a link to the models can be stored in the session file.

The main difference between .csb and .csbs files is the possibility to store the current surroundings and all models. The models can be embedded in the session file or a link to the model can be stored in the file.

NOTE: It is only possible to create and save multimodel .csbs files with a valid 3DEXCITE XPLORE DELTAGEN license. If the license is not present (or expired) it is still possible to open previously saved multimodel .csbs files.

A session file always contains the following content:

• all models

• the surrounding

• shadow settings of the surrounding

Icon in scene tree Form

FACEOnly exact geometry (NURBS) without polygons is generated when a file in a different format has been converted but not yet tessellated. The geometry is not visible.Exact geometry (NURBS) with polygons is generated, if the exact geometry is tessellated. The result is polygons. The geometry can be further tessellated, which can change the number and segmentation of the polygons. Only tessellated geometry is visible.A face corresponds to a surface. However, the object cannot be transformed and cannot have its own look. For this, it needs a shell.

POLYGONOnly polygons without exact geometry: in this case it is no longer possible to tessellate. This state is reached by combining exact tessellated geometry.

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ENCRYPTED SCENE FILE .RTX/.3XFSECUREMAYA TOOLS MENU

• the currently active surrounding variant

• all scene aspects (animations, variants, assignment tables...)

• all cameras of the scene

• the placement of the models on the turntable

NOTE: A session file can be opened via the standard open dialog just as .csb files. However they can not be loaded with camera and lights and they can not be target of a file link.

The query option extends its functionalities to VARIANT MANAGER and ANIMA-TION LIST. If there are multiple models in the scene, a query should only find targets in its related model.

When more than one model is saved in the same scene file, a .csbfile is created but only the active model is saved inside the project file. With the same scenario, a .csbs file is created and both the models and surrounding are saved inside.

Encrypted Scene file .rtx/.3xfsecure

In DELTAGEN, it is also possible to save a geometry encrypted in .rtx or .3xfsecure formats.

This format can no longer be edited; only be opened in DELTAVIEW.

Encrypted Session file .rtxs

This session file format combines characteristics of .rtx and .csbs formats into an encrypted session file.

It saves also the surrounding. This format can no longer be edited; only be opened in DELTAVIEW.

Surrounding file .rts/.3xfsurrounding

In DELTAGEN, it is possible to save a file in .rts or .3xfsurrounding formats.

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ANIMATIONS FILE .TMLMAYA TOOLS MENU

This format is used as the surrounding for presentations. .rts and.3xfsurrounding formats can no longer be edited.

Animations file .tml

Animations can be saved separately into a .tml format in order to reload them into another DELTAGEN scene.

Saving a .csbfile, variants and animations are saved within that file format. The .tml format saves animations separately for later reuse.

Variants file .var

Variants can be saved separately into a .var file in order to reload them into another DELTAGEN scene.

Saving a .csbfile, variants and animations are saved within that file format. The .var format exports variants separately for later reuse.

Texture path file .csb.TEXTUREPATH

If you use textures, you can specify them within DELTAGEN with an absolute or relative path, or just with the file name.

If you specify the file name only, the texture files are searched for in the direc-tory where the scene file is saved.

Texture paths can also be provided in a special file. This texture path file has the same name as the scene file, but the format is filename.csb.TEXTUREPATH.

The texture path file lists all the paths in which DELTAGEN and DELTAVIEW looks for textures used when opening the scene file. These path specifica-tions can be absolute or relative.

A texture path file is automatically created when a scene file containing textures is saved.

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LOOK LIBRARY FILES .RTLLMAYA TOOLS MENU

Look library files .rtll

In DELTAGEN, you can save the looks of a scene in a separate library. These files are saved in.rtll format.

This enables you to manage your color and effect settings systematically and to use them again in other scenes.

Batch processing files .cmd/.bat

Batch processing files contain start commands for DELTAGEN or DELTA-VIEW.

Batch processing files can be saved in .cmd or.bat format. In these files, you can specify a file to be loaded with animations as well as other start parame-ters.

Configuration files .ini

The .inifile format contains your specified application configuration.

The location of those files is by default located in the subdirectory of your Windows® User profile. For example:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes\3DEX-CITE\DELTAGENx.y

An .ini file also contains the list of working directories currently being used. If you delete these files, the default settings of the respective module are used.

If you configure batch runs in DELTABATCH using the DELTABATCH config-urator, you can save the configurations as text files in .ini format and reload them later.

You can also configure the application for a space-mouse by setting the corresponding variable in these files to true.

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ASSIGNMENT TABLE FILE .ASTMAYA TOOLS MENU

Assignment table file .ast

Using assignment tables you can give new apparency to geometry that already exists in the scene and save them.

Assignments can be done manually or automatically. You can save and reload any look assignment table in .ast format.

Assembly files

DELTAGEN and DELTAVIEW can read Assembly structures.

Components within customer-specific PDM solutions (PDM = Product Data Management) can be loaded.

When you load such an assembly into DELTAGEN, these external file formats are being converted into a file that is readable by DELTAGEN, keeping the original structure of the assembly file as well as the source links to load the parts.

This conversion can be done directly through DELTAGEN or using 3DEXCITE DELTABATCH to do so, for instance if you have multiple files to convert. This then can be done as batch jobs over night to optimize your workflow.

Texture and video files

Texture and video files with and without the alpha channel can be read.

You can use the following formats:

• image formats with alpha channel: bmp, dds (can also store mip maps), png, rgb, tga, tif/tiff, hdr, exr, psd (for alpha channels, only one image level can be used, otherwise the image is used without alpha channel)

• image formats without alpha channel: jpg, jpeg, videos: asf, wmv, and swf (up to and including Macromedia Flash Version 7)

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EXTERNAL FILE FORMATSMAYA TOOLS MENU

External file formats

In DELTAGEN and DELTAVIEW, you can load geometry data of external file formats if you have the necessary converters:

In DELTAGEN and DELTAVIEW

System Format VersionConvert

ers Remarks

STL STL Only polygons.

VRML WRL Only polygons, not supporting complete VRLM 2.0 standard, only a subset.

PLMXML 4 - 6 Contains the structure information of a module.

In DELTAGEN

System Format VersionConvert

ers Remarks

Catia V4 MODEL, EXP

4.1.9 - 4.2.4

DELTAGEN Direct Catia V4

Model files containing data created in CATIA V4 AEC workbench are not imported

Catia V5 CATPART, CATPRODUCT, CGR

R8-R27 (V5-6 R2017)

DELTAGEN Direct Catia V5

CATPart files created in V5R8 or earlier that have been opened and re-saved in a later version of CATIA V5 are not supported

Catia 3DEXPERIENCE

CATPART, CATPRODUCT

Catia 3DEXPERIENCE users should export their database objects as Catia V5 CATParts, CATProducts or as 3DXML

Catia 3DEXPERIENCE

XPDMXML 2017x DELTAGEN and DELTABATCH can import XPDMXML files of model parts with NURBS, UVs, materials, metadata and entire assembly structures

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EXTERNAL FILE FORMATSMAYA TOOLS MENU

Dassault Systemes

3DXML V4.3(no downwards compatibility)

DELTAGEN Direct 3DXML

No Nurbs information available. Only tessellated data. Referenced files are imported automatically. Materials are not supported

Rhino 3DM OpenNurbs 5.0

DELTAGEN Direct Rhino

AutoCAD® DWG 2.5 - 2016

DELTAGEN Direct Autocad

IGES IGS, IGES up to 5.3 DELTAGEN Direct Iges Import

STEP STP, STEP AP 203, AP 214, AP 242

DELTAGEN Direct Step

Unigraphics PRT, ASM NX 1 - NX 11

DELTAGEN Direct Unigraphics

SOLIDWORKS

SLDPRT, SLDASM

2003 - 2017

DELTAGEN Direct Solidworks

JT™ JT up to 10.0

DELTAGEN Direct JT™

DELTAGEN imports:• Polygons• Textures of polygons in JT™ files are imported as base textures. • JT™-Nurbs• XT-BREPS• Metadata

In DELTAGEN

System Format VersionConvert

ers Remarks

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