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Overview

ProDex works with four CAD formats: DWG, DXF, STEP, and STL. Dexter analyzes DWG, DXF, and STEP; the 3D viewer opens STEP, STL, and DXF; and Dexter can create STEP, STL, and DXF files. Which format you upload determines what Dexter can extract: DWG/DXF carry the 2D drawing world (layers, text labels, part marks), while STEP carries a clean 3D product structure with full curved geometry.
DWG 3D support is limited to the AutoCAD 2018 (AC1032) release. A DWG saved from any other release fails 3D analysis with a clear error. The fix is quick: export the file as DXF or STEP from your CAD tool and upload that instead.

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What Gets Extracted

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DWG and DXF

  • File identity — format and version (e.g. AC1032), overall extents and bounding box, and units.
  • Layers — the full layer list with names, inferred roles, and sub-assembly grouping derived from layer naming conventions.
  • Entity tally — counts of every entity type in the file.
  • Text labels — every label with its position. Corrupted MTEXT labels are flagged as suspect, and readable fragments are recovered where possible.
  • Synthesized BOM — unique part marks grouped by sub-assembly, solid-body counts per assembly, joint callouts, and orientation tags, always accompanied by caveats about how the grouping was derived.
  • 2D renders — a full-page overview image, or targeted crops by part mark, layer, or bounding box.
  • 3D mesh statistics — total solids, total triangles, model bounding box and dimensions; per sub-assembly: body count, overall dimensions, distinct plate thicknesses, and sample plate sizes.
  • 3D renders — named views or custom orientations, with each part or sub-assembly drawn in a stable color and a legend.
DWG units are inferred, not read. The DWG format carries no unit header, so Dexter infers units from geometry extents and plate thicknesses (a 0.1875 in plate reading as 3/16″ suggests imperial, for example). Treat reported units as a strong hint to verify, not an authoritative fact from the file.

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STEP

  • Header information — schema (AP203/AP214/AP242), the units the file declares, and description fields.
  • Product and assembly graph — component names and placement counts, the STEP analogue of a drawing’s part-mark BOM.
  • Full mesh — complete tessellation including curved faces, feeding the same 3D statistics and rendered views as DWG/DXF, but with nothing dropped. Dimensions are reported in millimetres whatever unit the file declares.
A STEP “BOM” counts placements in the assembled product: a part inside a sub-assembly that is used twice counts twice. A STEP file with no assembly links (a single solid, or an export that stripped the hierarchy) yields no per-part quantities at all, only solid-body counts and dimensions. A STEP file with component names but no geometry is refused. Dexter states these caveats alongside the BOM.

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Not extracted from any format

  • Title-block metadata as a structured object (title-block text still comes through as ordinary text labels)
  • Material properties, tolerances, and GD&T annotations
  • Feature history or a parametric feature tree
  • Colors, appearances, and textures as structured metadata

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Curved Geometry

The DWG/DXF 3D path meshes planar faces only. Curved faces — fillets, cylinders, cones, NURBS surfaces, bolt holes — are counted and reported as dropped, but they are not tessellated. A part that is entirely curved contributes zero triangles, and a file where every solid is fully curved has nothing to show in 3D. The curves are dropped only from the mesh, not from the solids in your file: if you ask Dexter to convert the DWG or DXF solids to a DXF, the curved faces are kept. STEP does not have this limitation: curved faces are meshed in full. When curved geometry matters and you can choose the upload format, choose STEP.

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Formats Not Supported

Almost every mainstream CAD package exports STEP. When in doubt, export AP214 or AP242 STEP from your native tool — it is the most complete path through ProDex’s CAD analysis.
If your specific CAD setup isn’t well supported by the paths above, ask your ProDex representative — they can advise on the best route for your files.

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Size and Complexity Limits

You can upload CAD files up to the general 2 GB per-file limit, but the CAD features have lower limits of their own: A file over the analysis limit is refused before Dexter reads it; export a smaller model or split the assembly into separate files. Very dense meshes can also be too large for the viewer to display even under 50 MiB. Beyond size, very large assemblies analyze more slowly; ask Dexter to focus on a specific sub-assembly, layer, or region instead of the whole model.

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Creating and Converting Files

Dexter can create new parts and drawings, edit an uploaded STEP model or DXF profile, and convert files, delivering the result as a downloadable report: Dexter cannot create or write DWG files. See Creating and converting CAD with Dexter.