step import and stp import

[moyesboy]

step import and stp import

I received a step assy from a solidworks user.
Out of habit from another cad system I renamed the .step as .stp. The assembly came in to Alibre with all the parts displaced.
When I imported it with the name as .step then it came in correctly.
Clearly there is something I didn't understand about how step and stp files are interpreted. Somehow the solidworks positions and orientation of the parts is only read when the file is named .step!

Can anyone explain this to me?

 

[mr.ska]

It's probably the same reason Alibre will refuse to import .iges files, but if you rename them to .igs it'll bring them in no problem.

However, realize that native Alibre parts are saved as .stp files, so when you renamed it Alibre thought they were native, and may have skipped over some steps (pun not intended) that would be required to successfully import a STEP file.