IGES Import Options

The IGES reader uses the iges_reader.ini file. This file has two sections. The first section contains the instructions for reading each type of IGES entity. It is recommended that you do not change this section. The second section controls the options for the translator.

The IGES reader has the following available options:

@CheckFacet

Value	Description
on	Based on the success of the normal faceting operation, more cleanup attempts may be required. One option is to mesh it in advance to check the faceting. This may slow down the import due to the possible use of meshing operations, but should result in cleaner surfaces (default).
off	Do not check the faceting and apply normal cleanup.

@CleanupTol

Value

Description

double

A negative value (default) means to use the auto cleanup tolerance. A value greater than the calculated auto cleanup tolerance means to use that specific tolerance.

Refer to the CAD Cleanup Tolerance section.

@ColorsAsMetadata

Value

Description

Read color attributes of geometric entities as metadata.

COLOR_RGB

off

Do not read color attributes (default).

@DoNotMergeEdges

Value	Description
on	Preserve the original geometry edges, instead of merging them together during the import cleanup phase.
off	Merge edges together during the import cleanup phase (default).

@ImportBlanked

Value	Description
on	Import entities that are hidden, blanked, or no show.
off	Do not import entities that are hidden, blanked, or no show (default).

@ImportForVisualizationOnly

Value

Description

Import the model for visualization purposes only.

This skips many of the import steps (cleanup, stitching, solid creation, and so on) to provide a faster import. The resulting model may not be suitable for other uses.

off

Import the model in the normal fashion (default).

@ImportFreeCurves

Value	Description
on	Import free curves (wireframe entities) into the model (default).
off	Do not import free curves.

@ImportFreePoints

Value	Description
on	Import free points into the model (default).
off	Do not import free points.

@ImportLayers

Value

Description

Layers to skip

Enables the specification of layer numbers to import, in order to skip unwanted layers.

To specify layer groupings, enter a hyphen between the beginning and ending values of the desired group. Groups are separated by commas.

Example: @ImportLayers = "1,2-5,100-200"

@ImportType

Value	Description
ASSEMBLY	Generate an assembly tree corresponding to the one contained in the file (default).
LAYERS_ONLY	Create components based on the layer (=level) structure of the file.
LAYERS_AND_GROUPS	Create components corresponding to layers and groups contained in the file.

@MetadataPrefix

Value

Description

string

The string is prefixed to all metadata names. No prefix is used by default.

See CAD Metadata Naming for more details.

@PropertyAsGroup

Value

Description

NEVER_MANAGE

Do not generate special metadata (default).

MANAGE_CORRECT_ONLY

Read group ID and name as metadata.

This is useful for special cases where the group ID and name have special meaning, such as to indicate a property ID and name. This applies to IGES entity type #402, form number #7.

GROUP_ID

GROUP_NAME

@ReadAsIndependent

Value

Description

INDEPENDENT

PHYSICALLY_DEPENDENT

LOGICALLY_DEPENDENT

Enable the import of three types of independent entities.

Use a semicolon to separate multiple values. When more than one value is used, both independent and logically dependent entities are treated as independent. Generally, this option should only be used for a particular vendor that marks some entities as dependent when they are imported. The reader imports the entities according to the value specified in the file. The default is INDEPENDENT.

@ScaleFactor

Value

Description

double

Defines the model scaling factor during import.

Default is 1.0.

@ SkipConnectivityComputation

Value

Description

Import the model without computing connectivity. The surfaces will not be connected.

This option speeds up import, but may not be suitable for any other purpose than visualization.

off

Import the model in the normal fashion (default).

@SkipCreationOfSolid

Value	Description
on	Read surfaces, but do not create solid entities.
off	Create solid entities (default).

@SkipEntities

Value

Description

Entity types and subtypes to skip

Specific entity types, or even subtypes (that is entity types with specific form numbers) that should be skipped during import.

The list of types uses semicolons as separators.

Example: @SkipEntities = "ENTTYPE1;ENTTYPE2.FORM2"

@TagsAsMetadata

Value

Description

Read tags of supported entities as metadata (default).

TAG

off

Do not read tags.

@Transform402form16

Value

Description

Entities referenced by an entity type #402 from #16 are transformed from 2D local space into 3D absolute space.

Early IGES files from SolidWorks require such an operation.

off

(default)

@TraverseGroups

Value	Description
on	The reader attempts to traverse group entities (default).
off	Ignore references to entities within a group.

@TrimRevolvedWithModelSpaceCurves

Value	Description
on	Attempt to compute the boundary definition by projecting 3D trimming curves (if such curves are available) onto the surface only for revolution surface entities (type #120).
off	Use parameter space trimming loops whenever possible. Given an IGES file containing correct data, this option is faster and more robust than reading object space loops (default).

@TrimWithModelSpaceCurves

Value	Description
on	Attempt to compute the boundary definition by projecting 3D trimming curves (if such curves are available) onto the surface. This is useful if the parameter space trimming loops in the file contain incorrect geometry data.
off	Use parameter space trimming loops whenever possible. Given an IGES file containing correct data, this option is faster and more robust than reading object space loops (default).

@TrimWithPreferredRepresentation

Value

Description

Attempt to create the boundary definition using 2D or 3D curves, based on the preferred representation provided by entity type #142.

This option can be overridden by either @TrimRevolvedWithModelSpaceCurves = on or @TrimWithModelSpaceCurves = on.

off

(default)

@UseAnsys128Format

Value	Description
on	Attempt to read Ansys NURBS surface format.
off	(default)

@Vendors

Value

Description

List of vendor names

Use vendor information to search the global section of the file to determine if it is from a particular vendor. Each vendor name is separated by semicolons and all spaces in the vendor name must be replaced by an underscore.

Example: @Vendors = "Vendor1;Vendor2;Vendor3"

After a vendor has been added to the list, options for that particular vendor can be specified. If a file is recognized as coming from a particular vendor, settings for that vendor take priority over "general" settings.

Example: @<Vendor1>.<option> = "<value>"

See Also: