Export IGES

Export IGES addon for Blender creates subdivision limit surfaces and saves it as an IGES file.

From Blender

To CAD.

System requirements:

OS: Windows 10 64bit with VC++ runtime 2019 or above.

OS: Mac OS 11 or higher.

OS: Linux 64 with the following dependencies.

linux-vdso.so.1

libstdc++.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6

libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6

libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1

libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6

/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

Installation:

Do not unzip the file prior to installation.

Blender 4.2 and newer:

• Drag and drop the zip file into blender.

Blender 4.1 and older:

• Install the downloaded addon using Edit->Preferences->Install and choose the downloaded ZIP file. 
• Enable the addon.

Usage:

Select the objects to be exported and File->Export->Export IGES. Please ensure that all modifers except subdivision, are applied to the mesh objects before exporting. Also, it is advisable to export objects separately. so that it can be managed better in CAD systems.

If there are many triangles, the exporter will now warn the user whether to continue to export or not.

Export Options:

• Export slected only exports selected objects.
• Subdivision level: 1, 2, or 3. Default value is 3.
• Batch Mode: Saves objects as individual IGES files. The name of the file will be in the format "name_objectname.igs"
• Keep Corners: The boundary edge corners are kept sharp. If switched off, the corners are made smooth. Default is on
• Up axis (default Z Up)
• Forward axis (default Y forward)
• Apply Modifiers (default on)

Limitation:

• This addon is meant to export the limit surfaces of a sparse quad dominant mesh. This is not meant to export mesh (especially triangulate dense meshes). Please use a suitable format such as STL to export such meshes.
• There should be only one subdiv modifier and the subdiv modifier should be the last in the stack. The output might not match the shape if there are muliple subdiv modifiers and/or such subdiv modifer is not the last one. In such cases, apply such subdiv modifiers manually.
• Tangency at the vertices of odd valance may not be sufficient with low subdivision level.
• SubDivison limit surface will conicide with the border edges and corners.

Remarks:

Please uninstall any previous version of ExportIGES Addon before installing this version.

Video Tutorials:

Version info:

v 2.0.0

• Enhancement: Support for Blender 4.2 and newer
• Enhancement: Option to keep the boundary edges as smooth or the corners as sharp

v 1.5.7

• Enhancement: Support for Blender Extension

v 1.5.6 (Linux only)

• BugFix: Automatically fix permission

v 1.5.5

• Support for Blender 4.0
• Soft creases are correctly represented by the limit surface.

v 1.5.0

• Enhanced tangency between the limit surfaces adjacent to vertices of odd valance.

v 1.4.0

• Support for automatically applying the modifiers.
• Initial release for Mac OSX.

v 1.3.5

• Support for Axis Selection
• Support for automatic scaling based on unit scaling

v 1.3.0

• Support for Blender 3.1
• Support for vertex creases.

v 1.2.0:

• Support for Blender 3.0

v 1.1.0:

• Now supports batch mode translation.
• Better performance.

v 1.0.0:

• Initial stable release.
• Support for edge creases.

v 0.9.0:

• Better Performance
• Initial release for Linux

v 0.8.0:

• Initial release for Windows