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Best practices: CAD file workflow

Best practices: CAD file workflow

Description

When working with CAD-files in your Prespective project having a proper workflow is strongly advised. In this article we share some tips and best practices to help you setup and organize your CAD-files. Before you import your CAD-files we recommend determining the goal of your project early on. This will help you with decisions regarding optimizing and managing your CAD-files.

 


Introduction

We strongly recommend using Pixyz to import all your CAD-files into Unity. Pixyz is a third-party plugin supported by Unity3D. You can download Pixyz from the Unity Asset Store, or via their website. When discussing import-settings in this article, we are using Pixyz.

Before you start importing any Cad files make sure you know which file types are most usable. To help you out choosing a proper file we recommend you to take a look in this document Choosing a proper 3D-file

Performance of a project on your system is essential for running Prespective simulations. We will show you how to keep your project manageable and accessible for these simulations.

Because a computer does not have infinite computing power, it is important to know which quality level fits your project and system the best.

When importing CAD-files the first step is to define the quality level of the 3d model. You can choose between a high, medium or low quality for your CAD-files. A lower quality will generate a model that has the same measurements, but less triangles and detail as a higher quality model. This is most obvious in circular and spherical shapes.

Low Quality : Generates less detailed models. Using a low quality model may be necessary to enhance performance for large CAD-files, or those with a lot of details.

Medium Quality : A good model that works well in combination with Prespective. This setting can be used on a single detailed machine. We recommend this preset for most cases. This preset does not reduce the details too much and is performance friendly.

High Quality : A highly detailed model is generated. This preset is mainly used for simple objects and high quality visualization.


Step 1 : Import and verify your CAD files with Pixyz

For more documentation on Pixyz’s import settings, please visit their documentation page.

When importing your CAD files, choose a “Mesh Quality“ level that matches the goal of your project. As shown in the introduction above. In most cases the default import preset gives a good result as shown below.

  • Make sure the Z-up direction matches that of your CAD-files.

  • Make sure the Left Handed matches that of your CAD-files. Otherwise your model will be mirrored.

Generate UVs on import

  • Make sure to check the “Create Ch.0 UVs“ to create an unwrap of all generated mesh files so you can add materials later on.

Verify the Cad model

  • Check whether the model has been imported with the correct scale, rotation and position in the Inspector as seen below.

  • Check the model on data loss / missing parts.

  • Create a “Cube“ from the top menu “GameObject->3D Object->Cube“ in order to compare if the scale is correct or not.

  • Look for the usability such as a complete Hierarchy tree.

  • Usable pivots. Set your “Tool Handle” on the top left of your screen to “Pivot and Local”

  • To check the usability of pivots you can select an parent or object that already has a rotation. If the if the pivot gizmo aligns with the selected object you probably got a usable 3D Model

  • To Check if the Unwrap has worked out well you can create an material. Put an “Checker texture“ in the “Albedo” channel of the created material.