A good working free STEP-file viewer that is NOT on-line? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Uky
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 10:48:04 am
content: Greetings forum,Looking for a good, free, working STEP-file viewer.Have so far tried FreeCAD but it hangs. Others found on the internet are trialwareor requires some sort of subscription/license cost.No need for any editing. Just viewing.

author: Feynman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 10:53:30 am
content: I use DesignSpark Mechanical for viewing STEP files. However, you have to create a DesignSpark account (no cost).

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 11:00:21 am
content: I use the VariCAD viewer, other suggestions:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/eda/free-step-viewer/https://eevblog.com/forum/projects/free-3d-model-step-file-viewer-i-can-recomend-to-customers/

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 11:59:54 am
content: designspark is very painful because you have to update it almost everytime you launch it (in my case)and it refuses to launch if you don't update...so I use freecad, but did not notice any problem for step files...

author: Feynman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 06:24:39 pm
content: Hmm, strange. My DesignSpark Mechanical never asks for an update.

author: Gribo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 06:55:39 pm
content: I think Solidworks E-Drawing can open .Step files, if not, then Autodesk TrueView is also an option.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2022, 09:12:43 pm
content: Quote from: Feynman on June 08, 2022, 06:24:39 pmI use it on a mac, may be it's not the same ?

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2022, 10:18:26 pm
content: I use FreeCAD to open them. Its free as in beer, and lightweight. I wouldn't recommend actually modelling something in it, feels like flying a spaceship where all the controls are hidden and you don't have instructions. I couldn't even figure out simple things like recolor a model. But for opening and looking at something its good.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2022, 06:15:41 pm
content: Yes, FreeCAD does the job for viewing STEP files (and other formats). But yes, its UI is uh... not sure how to qualify it.Even just exporting to some other format is not always a picnic.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2022, 08:03:39 pm
content: Hard to beat eDrawings from Solidworks,https://www.edrawingsviewer.comI use it on Mac and PC

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2022, 08:34:36 pm
content: I use F3Dhttps://f3d-app.github.io/f3d/

author: KE5FX
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2022, 09:07:46 pm
content: FreeCAD may seem to hang, but in most cases it's just taking forever to process the file without bothering to provide the slightest clue to the user. If you let it sit there for a minute or two, it will generally come back to life and let you view the model.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2022, 09:19:19 pm
content: Quote from: KE5FX on June 10, 2022, 09:07:46 pmIndeed. For bigger files it can halt for 15 or 20 minutes but it will come back. It is a known problem to the developers; it has to do with how FreeCad goes through all the objects in an inefficient way. I'm not sure whether the developers have fixed this in newer versions or not.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2022, 10:34:57 pm
content: FreeCAD is indeed quite sluggish when loading, but during modelling it's reasonably doable, except for some operations. Working with a sketch with several hundreds of constraints for example is a real pain, but once the sketch is finished and a pad is made, it can work quite decently with the generated 3D object.Starting FreeCAD is also a pain. I consider FreeCAD still in early development (It's just version 0.20 at the moment, and V1.0 is traditionally regarded as the first stable version fit for general use (Inkscape also took a long time to get there...) I have a thorough dislike for those very slow loading Appimage containers, but the're easy to distribute and they "work" (sort of), and FreeCAD is being developed by a quite small group of active people.I have never seen 20 minute load times for FreeCAD, but a few minutes is quite possible. One of the longest was a STEP model of an SMT PnP machine I found on the 'net.... And during those load times My Ryzen 5600G is running on a single thread of it's 6 core / 12 thread capability. Even though multi core processors have been common for 10+ years now, programs that make effective use of them are still not as common as you'd hope.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2022, 08:19:53 am
content: I don't think I experienced that with FreeCAD. Though I was only opening STEP files that are maybe 50MB or less.But I had similar feedback of exported PCBs from other Mech. designers . Their expensive tools took hours to open and process the STEP files that came from Altium.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2022, 08:42:38 am
content: Quote from: tszaboo on June 11, 2022, 08:19:53 amInteresting. I have a similar problem with Orcad Allegro. It produces huge step files even without including the PCB traces. Even Solid Works can't handle a 600MB step file. There should be a way to optimise a STEP file but I never found a tool that could.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2022, 09:11:08 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on June 11, 2022, 08:42:38 amI made a variant that doesn't have all the small parts, and export that.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2022, 11:50:36 pm
content: I once wanted to add a 3D model of an RJ-45 connector.It was a 58MiB Step file, I opened it, concluded it looked nice and then deleted it again.

author: Uky
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 13, 2022, 04:41:30 pm
content: Thanks all who replied.I got some good suggestions.Have been using Cadence orCAD/Allegro for ages even before Cadence introduced STEP-filemappings and display but I have not encountered STEP-files that are several hundreds of MBin size.