Downstream:<\/strong> if a drawing is handed to machining, machining is downstream.<\/p>\n\n Design work sends and receives many kinds of production files. The diagram below groups common formats by purpose.<\/p>\n\n No drawing frame:<\/strong> this form is usually read directly by a machine. It is not intended for people; it is intended for equipment.<\/p>\n Layers:<\/strong> mapped model entities, such as model edges and SM bend lines, must be separated quickly from manual input such as dimensions, annotations, and drawing frames. Only then can machine-ready drawings be produced.<\/p>\n Styles:<\/strong> this includes line weight, color, and line type. These are not strictly essential for production, but exported drawings that do not match company standards often have to be redone.<\/p>\n STEP is one representative format. Common exchange formats also include IGS and X_T.<\/p>\n STEP can arrive from upstream, and it can also be sent downstream. We cannot control incoming files, so being able to read them is enough. Outgoing files are under our control, so downstream requirements must be considered.<\/p>\n Exporting standalone geometry as STEP is a common requirement.<\/p>\n STEP includes the 203 and 214 formats. We can output both, but do not currently provide a data-writing path for information specific to 214, such as face and feature colors.<\/p>\n For example, a cube has six faces. Two faces may be set to green and four to blue. With the 214 format, these color assignments can be preserved.<\/p>\n Preserving them lets downstream users reuse the relationships. If the packaging team needs a product poster or render, the two green faces can be assigned leather and the four blue faces rubber. The face-to-color relationship can carry into rendering software and define material associations.<\/p>\n This may seem unnecessary for a cube. Replace it with a real product containing 800 curved faces. A CAD feature can easily contain many faces, while splitting the geometry into the same groups in KeyShot or C4D is extremely complex.<\/p>\n The main benefit I see in 203 is a smaller file, faster reading, and lower computer resource use. A PCBA board contains a very large number of faces, so resource use must be reduced, making 203 the preferred option.<\/p>\n From the CAD software’s point of view, Save As is enough. From the designer’s point of view, it is not. The problem is mainly in geometry: a DWG blanking drawing for one enclosure may contain six plates, and every plate must be sent to the machine separately. Solid geometry exported as STEP has a similar issue.<\/p>\n The output must therefore preserve parent-child relationships. The preceding diagram starts from design work and lists common formats used in machining, simulation, purchasing, and other stages.<\/p>\n If geometry A belongs to part B, the exported filename for geometry A could be \u201cPartB-GeometryA.stp\u201d. This is only an example and must not be treated as the naming standard. Manual naming consumes substantial effort because it also involves index allocation; drawing a line through a table is not enough.<\/p>\n The detailed naming rules will be covered separately.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A practical look at the file formats exchanged in design work, including STEP 203\/214, drawing requirements, and output relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6613],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowledge-box"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42972"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43009,"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42972\/revisions\/43009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Diagram](\"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/swtdo-design-upstream-downstream-file-formats-en-1-1024x762.png\" "\\"Upstream")
Common work deliverables<\/h2>\n
![\"Production](\"https:\/\/swtdo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/swtdo-production-file-types-en-1024x546.png\" "\\"Production")
Functions required from CAD software<\/h2>\n
STEP across upstream, downstream, 203 and 214<\/h2>\n
Output method<\/h2>\n
Output must preserve relationships<\/h2>\n