CADnection - Data Exchange Files

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This part of the blog series reviews the final step in assembling and submitting the CADnection data exchange file (CDE). The CDE is ingested by the target application such as a search engine, content management solution and/or custom application demanding CAD model data for complete product development analysis.

The formatting and organizing of the CDE is configurable. As previously discussed, the normalization and the enrichment process augment the raw data that has been extracted from the CAD model. As a recap, the primary categories of data include:

  • URLs for viewable images (thumbnail and streaming 2D or 3D)

  • CAD model data

  • normalized data

  • enrichment data

  • keys or unique IDs to embedded CAD models (parts or assemblies)

The data is a combination of tag/values with no specific order.

As a recap, the two viewables allow users to preview the CAD model as a thumbnail along with access to the full 2D/3D representation. The utility of these images is based on user interface experience established by the target application. The thumbnail is commonly used in the search results along with other metadata properties. Additionally, a user might click on a thumbnail that then activates downloading the full 3D viewable.

A key feature of CADnection is its ability to gather the “composed” list of part unique IDs and related items found in a CAD model. Most likely, these individual parts and/or assemblies have/are to be processed by the target application. Hence, during the user experience, a user has the option to select a referenced item. The target application would then be responsible for retrieving the properties of the referenced item that can include its thumbnail and streaming images. The two primary formats are JSON and XML. The name of this file is also configurable but directly tied to the initial CAD model file name that has been processed by CADnection.

The output of the CDE file can be returned as a path and file name in the original call to CADnection. Another option is simply to save the CDE file in a predefined file folder that can be ingested by the target application. Both combinations are configurable.

An important consideration in the operations of the CADnection process is that each time a CAD model is encountered and is processed, the resultant CDE supersedes the data previously produced.