topic Re: Do step files have material in them? in Inventor Forum

Do step files have material in them?

johan.degreef — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 06:15:53 GMT

Do step files have material in them?

Re: Do step files have material in them?

-niels- — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 06:24:54 GMT

I opened 2 different step files with notepad and it contains the following:

I'm guessing this comes from iProperties, so i'm inclined to say step files contain material info.

Re: Do step files have material in them?

CCarreiras — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 10:04:46 GMT

Hi!

I believe the step files would have the appearance (Color), but not the material info.
When converting to Inventor, You have to reapply the material to have the physical properties available.

Re: Do step files have material in them?

JDMather — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 11:54:53 GMT

~~The short answer is Yes.~~

Err, maybe... All I am getting is name and Density outside of Inventor.

But when I open the STEP in Inventor I get all of the Material Properties.

Use 214 or 242.

Unfortunately not all CAD software can pick up the Material information...

And of course - as mentioned previously Material (properties) and Appearances are two different things.

And of course - you can do your own simple experiment within Inventor and with other software opening the STEP file.

I guess I should have matched up the Units in my test, but you get the idea - you can run a test.

Re: Do step files have material in them?

johnsonshiue — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 23:47:51 GMT

Hi! Yes, I believe material styles are always supported in the STEP format itself. Inventor started supporting material styles in STEP translation in 2022 or so.

Many thanks!