Working with CAD Files Natively

Loading and saving CAD files, and managing a CAD file's parametric data

To Recognize a Parametric Part

Check the part's icon in the project tree. Parametric parts are represented with a cylinder, pure mesh parts show up as a shaded circle.

Tip: You can also select the part and check main menu > Prepare. If the items Retessellate model or Remove parametric association are greyed out, it's a pure mesh part.

Your workflows in Netfabb will remain largely unaffected as long as you do not change part shape by operations such as cutting or mirroring. When attempting to perform such actions, you will be warned with a dialog to tell you that this will drop the parametric information from the part. You may disable the warning dialog by setting System > Settings > General > Warn if solid model associativity will get lost to No. Dropping the parametric information fixates the current tessellation permanently into the part's mesh.

Note: You can convert the mesh back into a parametric model using Modify > Mesh to BREP.

To Drop the Parametric Data

You may manually force to drop the parametric dataset, and turn the CAD part permanently into a triangle mesh, at any time by choosing Prepare > Remove parametric association.

Remember: If you need the part at a higher resolution, don't forget to retessellate before dropping the parametric information.

To Load a CAD File for Native Use

Choose File > Add Part from the main menu.

Tip: You can also use Open File from the toolbar to do the same.

Export Parts as Parametric CAD File

Note: Export to CAD formats is available only for those parts that were loaded as CAD file and still retain their parametric data.

1. In Netfabb, select the parts you want to export.
2. Click File > Export Part > as parametric model file (SAT, STEP, IGES), and select the CAD format you want to export to, SAT, STEP, or IGES.

   The Export Parts dialog box opens.

3. Adjust export settings for the parts.
4. Enter a name and folder for your file and click OK.

To Retessellate a Part

To retessellate the part for a workflow step that could benefit from a different level of mesh resolution, choose Prepare > Retessellate model. This will provide you with a dialog to choose from tessellation presets.

The same part, tessellated with two different presets

To Create and Modify Presets

Netfabb comes with a set of tessellation presets as well as a variant for each that includes repair. To create and modify presets, do so during retessellation, or choose System > Tessellation setting library.

Here, you may create and edit duplicates from the default presets (these cannot be modified). Provide a name and make your selection from these options:

Parameter	Description
Normal tolerance	The smaller the tolerance, the more triangles will be generated to replicate curvature of a surface.
Surface tolerance	The smaller the tolerance, the more triangles will be generated to replicate a face shape in general
Maximum edge length	Limits the length of triangle edges
Maximum grid lines	Grid lines are an internal method to aid in triangle generation.
Minimum grid lines
Smoothing mode	Applies smoothing to no, surrounded, or all interior mesh nodes.
Triangulation level	Sets the level of triangulation in some edge cases.
Intersection mode	Intersections of grid lines may be used to provide additional points for meshing.
Postprocessing mode	Choose a preference for regular triangles or quads, if required.
Calculation mode	Prefer approximation and faster calculation, or higher accuracy and increased calculation cost.
Repair mode	Select from six options for post-tessellation repair, including Netfabb's built-in default repair scripts.