AngelSTEP User Guide

1. Check Size. Highlight the file and click Check Size. AngelSTEP reads the file without meshing it and shows the object count, the overall size and a Safe starting resolution for this model.

2. Use. One click puts that resolution into the dialog. The read is cached, so the import right after starts faster.

3. Import. Keep the defaults. You can change every setting per part later without importing again.

A CAD project folder often holds dozens of assembly files, and only one of them is the whole product. Open the folder in the import dialog and click Find Top Assemblies.

AngelSTEP Pro scans the folder and its sub-folders for Inventor (.iam), CATIA (.CATProduct) and SolidWorks (.sldasm) assemblies and lists the top-level ones, those that no other assembly uses, largest first. Each line shows how many parts it holds, and how many of them are missing from the folder.

Click an entry to select that file, then import as usual. Sub-assemblies are counted but hidden from the list.

Assembly files only reference their parts, so keep the project folder together. Parts whose files are missing are left out of the import.

Padlock (next to the part name): Lock Part protects a finished part from every change, including Live Change and batch rebuilds.

Source: the linked CAD file. The folder button relinks the whole import to another file, for example an updated revision; parts that are new in that file are offered with Import New Parts. The refresh button re-reads the current file after it was re-exported. The last button removes the link for good, leaving a plain mesh.

Whole selection NEW IN 3.0: with several parts selected, the heading reads Settings - N selected parts, and every value you change goes to all of them (locked parts excepted). Change a value with fifty parts selected, and all fifty follow.

Mode, Resolution, Min Segments, Quads: as in the import dialog, per part. 0.5 x Details / 2 x Details halve or double the detail in one click. In AngelGRID, Coarser Grid / Finer Grid do the same for the grid size.

Heal / Sew: CAD repair before meshing, per part.

Collapse Flat Faces: merges coplanar faces into n-gons for fewer polygons. Off by default; Clean Angle sets how flat counts as flat.

Close Mesh: caps open boundaries. The button turns red when the part has open edges.

Active Part Info: size and triangle count of the part. While a part rebuilds in the background, a progress bar takes the place of the count. Open edges are reported here in red; Show draws them as red lines on the model, and the eye button turns them on or off per part. The same switch, Show Open Edges, sits in the Viewport Overlays menu. Open edges come from gaps in the source CAD; Close Mesh caps them.

Parts with damaged CAD are meshed as raw and say so here. Parts that hold several separate solids show Explode to N Bodies (see Fused Parts below); where AngelSTEP does not know that yet, Check for CAD Bodies looks it up.

Remove manufacturing detail before it becomes triangles. Everything happens on the CAD geometry, stays watertight, and is also baked into STEP export. It works the same way for every format.

Remove Holes: round holes and counterbores up to Max Ø.

Remove Recesses / Remove Bosses: flush-fills sharp pockets and raised pads up to Max Size.

Remove Fillets / Chamfers: rounds and bevels up to Max Fillet / Chamfer, on turned parts, hole edges and isolated edges on flat faces.

Aggressive Removal (all removals): every tool tries harder and removes features that resist a clean removal. This can leave open edges; the red overlay shows where.

Features are recognised from the finished geometry, not from the CAD program's construction history. Blended, networked or thread-adjacent details are deliberately kept rather than risk a broken mesh.

Create patch UVs: every CAD face becomes its own conformal UV island, packed into the 0 to 1 space, in a UV map named AngelSTEP_UV. Mark UV Seams also marks the face borders as seams. Create UVs on Selected builds UVs for a whole selection without touching the geometry.

Live Change: when on, every change in the panel rebuilds the active part and all other selected parts at once, in the background on every CPU core, while you keep working. Otherwise change the values and click Update all Selected or All (every part of the same source file).

Export Selected as STEP: see section 6.

Open the ASSEMBLY TOOLS foldout at the bottom of the panel. The tools work on the whole import of the selected part.

Orientation: switch the import between Z-up and Y-up after the fact.

Collections: Organize Into Collections sorts the hierarchy into nested collections; Dissolve undoes it.

Hierarchy: Prune Hierarchy removes empty or noisy levels. Prune Mode chooses how (leaf empties, small branches or by depth); the ? button shows a diagram. Restore brings the original tree back.

Placement: Move Assembly to World Origin brings far-away CAD data home. Center Origins on Parts puts each selected part's origin at its centre. Both survive every rebuild.

Fused Parts: supplier CAD often arrives as one part that really holds many solids. Explode Selected Parts splits them into separate objects that keep their CAD link, names and materials. If the part is placed more than once, you choose between the selected objects and All Instances of This Part; above 50 bodies AngelSTEP asks before it starts. The original stays hidden and locked until you no longer need it.

Copies NEW IN 3.0: Instance Identical Parts finds every copy of the selected parts in the scene, the same CAD geometry only moved or rotated, that the file did not store as an instance (typical for Rhino files and exploded bodies), and makes them share one mesh. The copies need not be selected; select everything to instance the whole model. Each copy keeps its place, name and CAD link. Only exact copies are matched; locked parts are left alone.