STEP Import¶
The STEP FILE panel at the top of the sidebar handles all file loading.
Loading a file¶
Browser mode: Drag a .step or .stp file onto the drop zone, or click it to open a file-picker.
Tauri desktop mode: Click the drop zone to open a native OS file dialog filtered to .step and .stp files (both upper and lowercase extensions). Alternatively, drag a file onto the drop zone — Tauri provides the file path directly to the server.
The file name is shown in the drop zone once geometry has been loaded.
Mesh quality¶
The Mesh slider (1–10) controls the tessellation tolerance passed to the server-side OpenCASCADE parser.
| Slider value | Label | Deflection (mm) | Use when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Draft | 2.0–1.0 | Initial exploration, fast load |
| 3–5 | Med | 0.67–0.4 | General use |
| 6–8 | Fine | 0.33–0.25 | Curved surfaces, normal-based orientation rules |
| 9–10 | Max | 0.22–0.2 | Maximum accuracy |
The default is 2 (Draft) for fast initial load. Release the slider to automatically re-parse the loaded file at the new quality level — no manual reload needed.
Tip
Start at Draft to inspect geometry and verify face/edge selection. Increase quality only when computing surface-normal orientation rules or toolpaths that follow curved faces closely.
Server requirement¶
STEP parsing runs on a local Python server powered by pythonocc-core.
Browser mode: If the server is not running, start it manually:
Tauri desktop mode: The server is started automatically at app launch. A splash screen is shown while the server initialises (~2 seconds on first run).
Session management¶
The Import Session button loads a previously exported .json session file. This restores selection state (selected face IDs, edge IDs) and strategy configuration. Because geometry is stored on the server, the STEP file itself must be re-uploaded after importing a session.
To export a session, use the Export Session button in the Toolpath sidebar.