We are often asked by our clients what is the best file format to send us. DWG, DXF, VSD or Vector PDF files are the most helpful and in most cases will minimize the amount of work needed. Sometimes the CAD files we are supplied with are conversions from another program and the quality is poor. Sometimes there are multiple lines on top of each other and most of the line intersections are not connected. We can examine your files and let you know if they are usable or not. Below is a list showing most of the common file types you may receive from your clients and they are ranked by usability.
3D File Types: These are the most useful and have the most information.
- STEP: TurboCad
- STP: TurboCad
- SLDASM: Assembly
- SLDRPT: SolidWorks
- EDRW: eDrawings
- EASM: eDrawings
- EPRT: eDrawings
- 3DM: Rhino
- 3DS: 3D Studio Max
- IPT: Autodesk Inventor
- IAM: Autodesk Inventor
- IGS: IGES
Vector File Types: Most of the time we can use these directly or make modifications to them.
- DWG: AutoCAD
- AI: Adobe Illustrator
- DXF: AutoCAD
- PDF: Adobe Acrobat (Depending on which program created the PDF)
- EPS: Encapsulated PostScript
- CDR: Corel Draw
- SVG: Scalable Vector Graphic
- FH: FreeHand
- WMF: Windows Metafile
- PCT: Mac PICT
Raster File Types: We can use these but only for tracing, they are picture files and become more pixilated as you enlarge them.
- BMP: Bitmap
- JPEG: Compressed Photo
- TIFF: Tagged Image File
- PSD: Photoshop File
- PNG: Portable Network Graphic
- GIF: Graphic Interchange
- DOC: Word Document
- RAW: Raw Image File
- PCX: Paintbrush Image
- PSP: Paint Shop Pro