How can I read CAD files into my C program ?

[johnnash]

Is there anyway to do this ? The objects are being modeled using
NURBS. How do I go about building reader in C ? Are there any pre
built libraries that I can refer to build one myself ?

 

[Malcolm McLean]

Is there anyway to do this ? The objects are being modeled using
NURBS. How do I go about building reader in C ? Are there any pre
built libraries that I can refer to build one myself ?

Try rooting about on the Internet. wotsit.org is a good place to start for
the file, format. If your CAD format is not protected - most commerical
companies give read permission but not permission to generate new files in
the format - there will almost certainly be some code for it.

C readers are built on top of primitive IO functions like fscanf(). Normally
it is not particularly challenging to code a reader - the format has been
designed for the purpose of being read, after all - but it is rather tedious
because there are a lot of error cases.

 

[Ian Collins]

Is there anyway to do this ? The objects are being modeled using
NURBS. How do I go about building reader in C ? Are there any pre
built libraries that I can refer to build one myself ?

Check your documentation, most CAD products I've worked with provide an API.

 

[Bartc]

Try rooting about on the Internet. wotsit.org is a good place to start for
the file, format. If your CAD format is not protected - most commerical
companies give read permission but not permission to generate new files in
the format - there will almost certainly be some code for it.

C readers are built on top of primitive IO functions like fscanf().
Normally it is not particularly challenging to code a reader - the format
has been designed for the purpose of being read, after all - but it is
rather tedious because there are a lot of error cases.

That's the opposite from what I've found, especially with Autodesk products
(although opendwg.org provides useful tools). Or the format is complex and
designed to be accessed via an API -- with a C++ interface.

The OP posted the same question a couple weeks back; the code had to be in
C, but did not give further details as to the specific format.