STEP File Viewer and Converter Improvements

Updated on October 02, 2024, originally published: October 02, 2024

We have made many upgrades to our STEP file viewer and converters in recent weeks and are excited to share these updates here. The changes made to these tools are designed to help visitors upload and visualize STEP files quickly and accurately without waiting an eternity for the STEP file to render, which is usually the case with other STEP file viewers and converters when dealing with large or complex STEP files.

STEP File Viewer Updates

Before we continue, this update is relevant to STEP, STP and STPZ (Compressed STEP) files. Due to the nature of how data is stored within a STEP file, they can become very large when used to store complex or detailed 3D items. This combination of file size and the nature of how the data is stored usually results in long processing times when working with larger STEP files.

Performance Improvements

The updates we have made specifically target this issue of long processing times with the end result meaning that our STEP file viewer can read your STEP file and make an accurate 3D render preview usually 4 times faster than other online and offline viewers without freezing up your computer or browser window in the process.

Accurate Rendering

With this updated version, our STEP renderer will create higher-quality 3D rendering previews than before. In technical terms, the tessellation process that is used will generate more detailed 3D models by using more surface faces and vertices in order to create a high-quality 3D model on your screen.

One issue with our previous STEP viewer offering was its lack of support for color and styling data. This has now been corrected, with our STEP viewer now able to accurately read the color data from the STEP file and apply it to the relevant 3D objects.

A simple STEP file containing a square, cylinder, and sphere

A sample step file downloaded from here.

A bowl saved in STEP format

Converting STEP Files to Other Formats

Along with the STEP Viewer, our general conversion tools, such as STEP to STL also benefit from the enhancements made to the STEP viewer, which, along with our batch conversion capabilities, means you can convert multiple STEP files to other formats quickly.

Saving to STEP

Along with the enhanced STEP file viewer and converter, we have also added a new capability that allows 3D model files such as STL, OBJ and many more to be converted to the STEP format. Being able to convert such mesh formats to STEP allows easy inclusion of mesh objects within software that may not necessarily have been designed to handle 3D mesh-based objects.

The conversion to the STEP format can yield some very large files, so this functionality is best used with 3D mesh objects of low vertex and face counts. If your file is too large for our converter, you will be alerted, giving you the chance to try a simpler model.

Feedback

As with all our tools, we are continuously working to improve their performance and compatibility with all versions of the STEP file format. If you have any feedback that you think would help us to improve these tools, please leave it using the feedback option that is presented to you when your file has been converted or post a comment below.