Home > Supported File Formats > I-DEAS to PLY

How to convert I-DEAS to PLY (Stanford .ply)?

PolyTrans|CAD+DCC performs mathematically precise CAD, DCC/Animation, GIS and BIM 3D file conversions into all key downstream 3D packages and file formats. Okino software is used and trusted throughout the world by many tens of thousands of 3D professionals in mission & production critical environments, backed by respectable personal support directly from our core development team.

I-DEAS

I-DEAS was a CAD software package originally developed by SDRC in 1982. Unigraphics and I-DEAS were merged into "NX" (or Unigraphics NX). Siemens AG would eventually come to own "NX" by 2007 by which time it is now referred to as "Siemens PLM Software".

Okino's VRML importers were tweaked in their early days to specifically import VRML files from the I-DEAS software; this is the preferred method of data translation. Other supported formats are IGES, STL and VDA-FS.

PLY

PLY can generally be considered a simple, 1990s-era, university research oriented polygonal (mesh) 3D file format designed to store data from 3D scanners. It was developed by Greg Turk and others in the Stanford graphics. Its design was inspired by the Wavefront .obj format.

PLY was meant to be a simple, easily parsable file format and hence only conveys basic geometry information for a single object definition with polygon vertices, vertex colors vertex normals and UV texture coordinates. No materials nor hierarchy, lights or cameras are supported.

Vist the Siemens WEB Site

VRML2 import converter's overview

PLY export converter's overview