The Complete STEP to FBX Conversion Guide
General Information
This guide is part of the RapidPipeline 3D Formats Knowledge Database. It shows how to convert STEP to FBX, if you'd like to know more about the formats, please check out the following links:
Comparison of Features Supported by STEP and FBX
| Feature | Supported by STEP | Supported by FBX |
|---|---|---|
| Morph Targets | No | Yes |
| Rigid Animations | No | Yes |
| Skinned Animations | No | Yes |
| Animations | No | Yes |
| Free-Form Surfaces | Yes | No |
| Geometry Compression | No | No |
| Quad Meshes | Yes | Yes |
| Basic 3D Geometry | Yes | Yes |
| PBR Materials | No | Yes0 |
| Transparent Materials | No | Yes |
| Vertex Colors | No | Yes |
| Materials | Partial | Yes |
| Scene Composition | No | No |
| Hierarchical Scene Graph | Yes | Yes |
| Scene Nodes | Yes | Yes |
| Standardized Format | Partial | No1 |
| Embedded Textures | No | Yes |
| Multiple UV Channels | No | Yes |
| Normal Mapping | No | Yes |
| Procedural Textures | No | Partial |
| Texture Compression | No | No |
| Texture Transforms | No | Yes |
| Texturing | No | Yes |
Limitations of a STEP Files to FBX Conversion Workflow
The following limitations should be taken into account when converting STEP files to FBX format:
| STEP Feature (not supported by FBX) | Limitation Details |
|---|---|
| Free-Form Surfaces |   Free-Form Surfaces: supported in STEP, but not in FBX. Free-form surfaces allow a CAD user to design surfaces with advanced controls over curvature and continuitiy. While these surfaces are common for CAD models (in the form of so-called boundary representations or "B-reps"), they need to be converted to polygonal triangle or quad data to work with most 3D rendering engines - a process called tessellation. In this example, a surface patch is used to describe a part of a curved surface of a product. Without support for this feature, the free-form surface has to be tessellated into quads or triangles. |
| Standardized Format |   Standardized Format: supported in STEP, but not in FBX. Standardization plays a huge role in 3D model formats. With a format being standardized, every application will have a clear way of how to load or store data using this format. This makes it easier to re-use the 3D model across different applications, but also to make sure it will still be accessible and usable after a couple of years. |
Converting and Optimizing STEP Files to FBX
There are various ways to convert between STEP and FBX. With RapidPipeline, you can easily convert and and optimize STEP files, at scale. It supports FBX, as well as many other file formats (examples: 3dsMax, glTF, OBJ, PLY, STL, USD, USDZ, VRM), at high quality.
Due to the potential limitations aforementioned on the table above, in principle, one cannot always perfectly convert 3D data between FBX and other formats. In the following, you can find conversion guides between FBX and the most important other formats, along with a rough score for compatibility of this workflow:
What's the best way to get STEP files into my 3D applications, and are there alternatives to using FBX?
Doing 3D conversion right, especially at scale, can be tricky, as 3D data is in general a rather complex (yet very powerful!) medium. This also applies to STEP and FBX files - the conversion guide above provides a rough first idea about that. Once you know what you would like to do, tools like RapidPipeline can help you perform the necessary steps, and to even automate the process for thousands or even millions of files.
Especially when introducing pipelines and workflows at scale in an enterprise context, it is usually good to rely on dedicated tools and expertise, making sure you do not introduce any steps into your 3D workflow that are detrimental to the final output's quality, or that take your team too much time (and money).
If you're interested to hire dedicated expertise from the best in the field to help your company reach your goals fast and reliably, please do not hestitate to contact DGG. Being the creators of RapidPipeline, and ambassadors for open 3D standards for more than a decade, we have been building some of the world's most advanced 3D pipelines, having processed many millions of 3D assets.
Therefore, our expertise will help you to reach your goals faster, at scale, and with the least possible friction, since we are focused on maximum interoperability.
To get started with 3D data conversion and optimization today, sign up for a free account!
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