Navisworks – Product Structure

Marketing
Marketing
  • Updated

by Garry Stockton

Navisworks has two products:

  • Navisworks Manage
  • Navisworks Freedom

Of these, Freedom is a free viewer product that can be downloaded and used for free from Autodesk's website. Authoring is done by Manage. 

Navisworks file structure

Navisworks files come in three file formats:

  • A file that holds the shape and properties of NWC cache objects.
  • NWF file set File combinations, cameras, annotation information.
  • NWD dataset A file that combines NWC and NWF into one.

Navisworks_Prod_Struc_GS_01.png

Image courtesy of Autodesk

NWC-Information on shapes and attributes

Navis can read many files, but when you read any file with Navis, it is converted to "nwc (Navisworks Cache)" format and read.

NWF-File management information

A file that manages the file set. It stores information such as which nwc was combined and how, where and how the camera and view were placed and annotation information.

It should be noted that NWF is always a set with NWC. NWF alone cannot display shape and attribute information.

NWD - NWF + NWC

NWD is a compilation of NWF and NWC into a single file. Freedom can only read NWD format files.

Readable files

The file formats that can be read by Navisworks Manage are as follows.

format

Expand

version

Navisworks

.nwd .nwf .nwc

all

AutoCAD

.dwg, .dxf

~ AutoCAD 2016

MicroStation (SE, J, V8 & XM)

.dgn .prp .prw

v7, v8

3D Studio

.3ds .prj

~ Autodesk 3ds Max 2016

ACIS SAT

.sat .sab

All ASM SAT. ~ ACIS SAT v7

Catia

.model .session .exp .dlv3 .CATPart .CATProduct .cgr

V4, v5

CIS / 2

.stp

STRUCTURAL_FRAME_SCHEMA

DWF / DWFx

.dwf .dwfx

all

FBX

.fbx

FBX SDK 2016.0

IFC

.ifc

IFC2X_PLATFORM, IFC2X_FINAL, IFC2X2_FINAL, IFC2X3, IFC4

IGES

.igs .iges

all

Inventor

.ipt .iam .ipj

~ Inventor 2016

Informatix MicroGDS

.man .cv7

v10

JT Open

.jt

~  10.0

NX

.prt

~ 9.0

PDS Design Review

.dri

Legacy file format.  ~ 2007.

Parasolids

.x_b

~ Schema 26

Pro / ENGINEER

.prt .asm .g .neu

Wildfire 5.0, Creo Parametric 1.0-3.0

RVM

.rvm

~ 12.0 SP5

Revit

.rvt

2011 --2016

SketchUp

.skp

v5 ~ 2015

Solidworks

.prt .sldprt .asm .sldasm

2001 Plus-2015

STEP

.stp .step

AP214, AP203E3, AP242

STL

.stl

Binary only

VRML

.wrl .wrz

VRML1, VRML2

PDF

.pdf

all

Rhino

.3dm

~ 5.0

Image courtesy of Autodesk

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