Importing Geometry from Step Files

Rhino Developer
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1

I am using C# to make a Rhino and Grasshopper plugins. Using Rhino7.

I have been looking around and it seems like there isn’t a build in way to read a step file into a custom plugin. The only way I can find is to:

  1. use RunScript to convert the step into a 3dm then use File3DM to read the file,
  2. use RunScript to import the step file into rhino then find all the new objects with my plugin
  3. find some 3rd party library that reads step files

Is there another way? I can see that there is a FileStep.Read method, but it is only available in Rhino8. Is there any way to do this in Rhino7 or do I have to start using the beta?

Thanks for the help!

2

I think you’re correct that

  1. Rhino 7 file import plugins are generally black boxes (no reason they have to be if you wrote one yourself) for which you just get to see the results after reading the file

  2. Yes, the new FileIO stuff is a specific improvement for Rhino 8.