Abstract
Most commercial CAD systems provide parametric modeling functions, and by using these capabilities designers can edit a CAD model in order to create design variants. It is necessary to transfer parametric information during a CAD model exchange to modify the model inside the receiving system. However, it is not possible to exchange parametric information of CAD models based on the cur-rent version of STEP. The designer intents which are contained in the parametric information can be lost during the STEP transfer of CAD models. This paper introduces a hybrid CAB model translator, which also uses the feature tree of commercial CAD systems in addition to the macro file to allow transfer of parametric information. The macro-parametric approach is to exchange CAD models by using the macro file, which contains the history of user commands. To exchange CAD models using the macro-parametric approach, the modeling commands of several commercial CAD systems are analyzed. Those commands are classified and a set of standard modeling commands has been defined. As a neutral fie format, a set of standard modeling commands has been defined. Mapping relations between the standard modeling commands set and the native modeling commands set of commercial CAD systems are defined. The scope of the current version is limited to parts modeling and assemblies are excluded.
