What is essential to sustain the interconnectedness of Engineering and design environments? While various factors determine this sustainability, we say that ideal collaboration will suffice for the requirements. The Engineering and design environment can acquire the desired collaboration by exchanging the created CAD designs to envision the model and make informed decisions.
Connecting those CAD software solutions for better data exchange and collaboration becomes inevitable. At this point of acquiring precise data exchange, comes the challenge of preserving the data integrity of the CAD files. A simple improper reference, design errors, or version mismatch can lead to diverse issues, sometimes shutdown of the project. Therefore, in this blog, we will dwell on aspects that tend to preserve data integrity during diverse CAD file exchanges.
Why Is Preserving the Data Integrity of CAD Files Important?
While there are various complex reasons to list for this, taking the information as it was with the parent software can be the simple reply to this question. Preserving this prominent information is quite challenging when it comes to exchanging the CAD data files. The 2D and 3D designs created from the diverse CAD software have unique information within. The precise details within the design can contribute to the whole project at specific instances. In this case, missing out on any minute information will cost the project huge challenges, delays, and at times, giving up on the project as well.
When a user follows inefficient data conversion, it can compromise data integrity. Such process can retard the conversion process and affects the quality of the whole model conversion.
Here are certain points that we say are the sole aspects of CAD data integrity:
- Assembly structures and references
- Material and associated model details
- Annotations and instances.
These are some important aspects that a user has to look at when they need to exchange the CAD data without compromising the data integrity.
How to Preserve and Maintain Data Integrity During CAD File Exchange?
Having said the importance of preserving and maintaining the data integrity of the CAD files, how to perform that can be the question here. That said, here are certain important aspects that ensure and assist in maintaining CAD data integrity during the exchange process.
1. Standard File Format Usage
File formats play a vital role when it comes to preserving data integrity during CAD file exchange. Each CAD software will have a unique file format and its proprietary data structures, and when that format is exchanged with another, it often leads to distorted model conversion, losing the model data integrity. This can be rectified by using the standard file formats. In this case, the CAD data can be exchanged more efficiently, preserving the original metadata and properties, and so the ideal data integrity.
2. Simplify the Model
Every time the user won’t need to export the whole model, at times, there will be requirements to simplify the model and transfer it to other software. With ideal simplification, the user can remove the unnecessary parts, layers, views, and blocks, simplify the whole assemblies, and make the model lighter, etc., With this, the data integrity gets preserved as this assists in transferring only the required information and not the whole vague information to the target software.
3. Validate Geometry
Another major step to verify data integrity is to validate the model post-conversion. The CAD models will have their geometry, and when it is transferred to another software, it is important to verify whether the same geometrical information with the accuracy is transferred. This can be done with some automation tools, where they can be used to check the tolerances and dimensions of the components and inspect the structures to understand the component relationships and capture constraints if there are any.
4. Preserve Metadata
Since the requirement is to maintain data integrity during CAD file conversions, preserving the metadata is one ideal step for that. A model is not just about geometry; there is a lot more information associated in the model, like the material specifications, part numbers, revisions, manufacturing details etc., These metadata have to be carefully transferred to the other software; this ensures that the model data integrity stays intact to the requirement. Furthermore, the accurate transfer of metadata assists in a lot more extensive processes like generating BOM for the CAD models and their components.
How BIMDeX Maintains Data Integrity When Exchanging CAD Files
Having said that about the importance of maintaining data integrity during CAD file conversions, and expressing the ways that assist in this run, here is BIMDeX, the potential one-stop solution that provokes better model translation while preserving a whole lot of data integrity.
Here are certain impeccable reasons why BIMDeX can be the one-stop solution for efficient model conversion and an ideal tool to maintain data integrity when exchanging CAD files:
- BIMDeX has its own native in-house proprietary file format called ‘BXF’ that serves as the best remedy for the issues that come up with file compatibility. This common file format assists users in connecting the design software solutions that have different file formats without compromising the design data information and other important specifications.
- BIMDeX is a tool of desirability! The AI-based software tool offers users extensive options to customize the model export as per their requirements. A huge model from CAD software can be transferred to another application in a more simplified way through BIMDeX. The solution will help the users to make the model lighter and take it to other software, leaving unwanted components and details. This assists in taking the right data, not the whole information.
- As a credible solution, It maintains the model geometry throughout the conversion. A user can preserve the model geometry with BIMDeX and ensure that the dimensions and tolerances are maintained. In this way, BIMDeX ensures that the model geometries are converted as parametric which allows Editability and does not get distorted.
- Integral data can be maintained only when the model’s properties are preserved, and BIMDeX takes charge of this. The solution allows the users to customize the integral information and transfer it to the other solution. With this, the user can transfer only the required information through BIMDeX during conversion.
Wrapping Up
Since the Architecture, Engineering, and Manufacturing industries are moving forward to excellence through each step of improvisation, it demands impulsiveness in streamlining the whole initiative. That said, preserving the data while exchanging the CAD files directly or proportionately supports the whole process and assists the users to have one hands-on ideal medium of model conversion.
BIMDeX prevails as the ideal tool, moreover, a one-stop solution for the whole process, and offers more streamlined model conversion and a significant way to maintain data integrity. BIMDeX does not limit itself to this, as it has more for the industry. Get in touch with BIMDeX!
