Abstract
One of the biggest problems of rapid prototyping(RP) technologies lies in their standard file format for CAD data exchange. Current methods using the de facto industry standard 'STL'have at times resulted in problems such as accuracy, redundancy, and integrity. In this paper we propose a STEP based data exchange framework for rapid prototyping systems. In this paradigm of data exchange, STEP models can be imported and converted into faceted B-rep. solid models for visualization and 2-D layer data for RP. Also an STL model, on the other hand, can be converted into a faceted B-rep. STEP model and exported as a new data exchange model with RP information.