OCCReader: A plugin for visualizing CAD file in STEP,IGES and BREP format in ParaView.
OCCReader is a ParaView plugin for importing CAD files in Open CASCADE (OCC) open-source format STEP, IGES and BREP and visualizing in ParaView. This plugin facetes CAD solids into VTK Polydata. With this plugin, the CAD geometry can be visualized together with physical fields, so that the traditional way of using STL file to visualizing geometry can be avoided. Three dispaly modes are provided-- wireframe(mode 1), shading(mode 2) and wireframe+shading (mode 3). The faceting accuracy can by increase by adjusting the "Deflection" parameter. This document provides instrutions for compiling the plugin.
Install the plugin in Linux system
-> Download a ParaView binary executable from www.paraview.org/download. ATTENTION, the executable version should be consistent with the plugin requirement. For example, plugin "OCCReader_for_ParaView_4.3.1_Ubuntu_14.04_64bit" requires ParaView_4.3.1.
-> Unzip the ParaView bindary package, and also the OCCReader plugin file. Copy all the files from OCCReader folder to the "lib/paraview-./" folder of ParaView binary.
->You need to load this library manually for the first time. In ParaView menu Tools->Manage Plugins, click "Load New" to load the "libOCCReader.so" in the "lib/paraview-./" folder, and select "Auto Load" to load it automatically.
Install the plugin in Windows system
The approach used for Linux system is not working due to the problem of compiler compabitility. Therefore, the entire ParaView is distributed together with the plugin. Some reader and filter plugins are missing in this ParaView distribution.
-> Download the windows version of OCCReader plugin, which is a special ParaView distribution. Unzip it, and open the paraview.exe.
->You need to load this library manually for the first time. In ParaView menu Tools->Manage Plugins, click "Load New" to load the "OCCReader.dll" in the some folder as paraview.exe , and select "Auto Load" to load it automatically.
******************** How to use this plugin ***********************************
This plugin is used like other ParaView Reader plugin. In ParaView, click "Open" button, you can find "OpenCASCADE CAD file(.step,.stp,.igs,.iges,*.brep)" in The draw-down list. If yes, you can import any CAD files in those formats. If not, please make sure that the plugin is loaded correctly.
-> Loading a CAD file, click "Apply" to process the model.
-> Display mode is for setting the display effect:
->mode 1: wireframe mode
->mode 2: shading mode
->mode 3: wireframe & shading
->Deflection is for adjusting the display precision. The smaller deflection means smaller tolerance, thus higher precision.
->After changing the parameters, click "Apply" to take effect.
For any questions related to the use of this software/library you may contact Ulrich Fischer([email protected]) or, for technical assistance, contact Yuefeng Qiu ([email protected]).
Have fun playing with it! :)