CAD models inherited from CAD software (CATIA, NX, SolidWorks, Alias, STEP…) are not tessellated. They contain exact parametric geometries (BRep, Nurbs,...).


A CAD body (closed volume) or CAD surface (open shell surface) is composed of CAD faces (or patches), delimited by boundaries (see Glossary).

To be displayed in a 3D application, these CAD faces need to be translated into tessellated surfaces, also called meshes. A mesh is composed of multiple connected polygons, or triangles (1 polygon generally equals 2 coplanar triangles), forming a discretized geometry that is understandable by a GPU, to be rendered in a 3D application.

Moreover, CAD models can contain additional engineering and design data (Metadata, PMI,…), that can be very useful to perform a targeted Data Preparation process based on targeted properties.


DCC software (Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, Modo…) natively create tessellated geometries (often referred as polygonal models), that can be exported as FBX files for example, to be re-imported in PiXYZ STUDIO for further optimization. Note that these meshes often come with UVs (textures coordinates used to display textures on meshes), that can either be kept or recreated in PiXYZ STUDIO.




NOTE                Useful links about CAD vocabulary: CAD, BRep, Nurbs, Polygon Mesh, PMI, CAD Data Exchange.


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