Skip to content

Use CAD files

Emanuele Gissi edited this page Sep 10, 2025 · 2 revisions

ℹ️ Work in progress

This wiki page shows how to use external CAD data as a reference to build your FDS geometries.

Importing CAD files?

Blender (thus BFDS) can import many different file formats. In general you can draw your building geometry in your preferred CAD tool and then import it to Blender for further treatment towards FDS exporting.

There are many natively supported formats.

Other formats are supported by official addons.

Even more formats are supported by unofficial addons, developed as external projects (as BFDS), for example Bonsai BIM IFC format for 3D architecture.

Importing Autocad DWG files?

Although the DWG format is popular among designers, drafters, and architects, the file type is a proprietary format and not freely usable. The format is owned and managed by Autodesk, and a program can’t technically support it without Autodesk’s API or a license. As obtaining a license for the DWG format comes at a cost, free software like Blender generally doesn’t support the DWG format.

Luckily, there’s a way to work with DWG files in Blender, and, this article explains how to do it.

Clone this wiki locally