Parasolid
File Extension X_T
Supported Versions 14.0
Platforms
Tessellation
B-rep
PMI N/A
Assembly
Views

The Parasolid file format was originally developed by Shape Data Limited, now owned by Siemens Digital Industries Software. It was first released in 1986 and has since become a widely used geometric modeling kernel in the CAD industry.

The Parasolid writer allows developers to export B-rep data from Exchange to Parasolid. The file extensions that you can create when you export the data are:

  • .X_B
  • .X_T
  • .XMT
  • .XMT_TXT

How to Export to Parasolid

To export a model to Parasolid, use A3DAsmModelFileExportToParasolidFile(). Customize the export using A3DRWParamsExportParasolidData.

Note

Export of tessellation data is only possible using the Parasolid bridge.

A3DRWParamsExportParasolidData sParamsExportData;
A3D_INITIALIZE_DATA(A3DRWParamsExportParasolidData, sParamsExportData);

// ... set export parameter options

A3DAsmModelFileExportToParasolidFile(pModelFile, &sParamsExportData, "path/to/file.X_T");

Assembly

To understand and manipulate the model tree before export, see assembly traversal or the :doc:`Tree Traversal API <guide/tree_traversal>’.

Export to Buffer

Our Parasolid writer provides additional paramters to export data, which can be found in the refernce manual

Before exporting, ensure that the model contains the geometry and tessellation you expect. See our pages on tessellation for tips on generating visualization data for export.

Assembly

The assembly structure will be exported into the Parasolid file. This will include support for instancing and any coloring and transformations that may be present.

B-Rep

All B-rep surface and curve definitions are maintained during export, as long as the source format was Parasolid-based. This includes the blends and intersection curves. However, the B-rep is not exactly the same as the original Parasolid data as we occasionally need to do additional operations like trimming surfaces and recomputing vertices. If you need to export B-rep exactly as it was in the original file, you should use the KeepParsedEntities import option.

If the format was not a Parasolid-based format then all surfaces get mapped to one of the following:

  • B-spline surface
  • Cone
  • Cylinder
  • Plane
  • Sphere
  • Revolution surface
  • Swept surface
  • Torus

…and curves to one of the following:

  • 3D curve
  • Circle
  • Ellipse
  • Line
  • UV curve

Visualization

Export of tessellation data is only possible using the Parasolid bridge.

Views

Views are a concept not supported by this format.