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Import

FluidCAD imports STEP files. An import becomes a cached .brep in the project's imports/ folder and a load() statement in your file, which places the geometry in the scene like any other feature.

In the viewport​

  1. Click Import (the file icon at the right end of the top bar, next to Export). On a narrow window it sits in the Actions menu.
  2. Pick a .step or .stp file. FluidCAD converts it and saves it as imports/<filename>.brep in your project folder.
  3. A load() statement is appended to the current file and the imported solid appears in the viewport with a Load row in the History panel. Colors stored in the STEP file are kept.

The project structure looks like this after importing:

my-hinge/
├── imports/
│ └── bracket.brep ← created by the import button
├── box.part.js
└── package.json

The code behind it​

import { load } from 'fluidcad/core';

const bracket = load("bracket"); // loads imports/bracket.brep

load() takes the file name without its extension and returns a scene object you can transform, select from, and mate against like a modelled solid.

Placing the imported geometry​

After loading, move and rotate the geometry with the transform statements:

import { load, rotate, translate } from 'fluidcad/core';

const rail = load("EGH20CA1R350Z0H_FILE_1")
rotate("x", 90)
translate(0, -50, 25)

See Transforms.

Units​

load() needs no unit. STEP files carry theirs, the import is cached in millimetres, and load() scales it into the loading file's unit: a factor of 1 in a millimetre file, so existing projects are untouched. load("bracket", { unit: 'in' }) is an assertion for assets with no trustworthy metadata (a .brep copied into imports/ by hand, a STEP whose header is wrong); it overrides what the import recorded, and you should leave it out otherwise.