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Previewing file types on Catenda Hub
Previewing file types on Catenda Hub
Julien Benoit avatar
Written by Julien Benoit
Updated over a week ago

For our model viewer we only support IFCs.
All file types can be uploaded to our document section.

Note: The IFC and Point cloud (e57 and las) previews can be loaded in the 3D viewer.

This article contains information about the previewing of the following file formats:

Open file formats

At Catenda we like to work with open file formats so that everyone can work together regardless of the software they own. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to their inherently open nature. Source This means that it is not just one organization controlling what gets developed.

IFC

Documents section - ifc (any), ifczip (any)

IFC files that are uploaded to the documents section will show a preview of the IFC 3D view.

Objects will not have properties and GUIDs which means the objects cannot be linked to issues.

IFC documents in the documents section can be promoted to a model in the model section.

Models section - ifc, ifczip

Accepted (Official and retired releases by BuildingSMART)

Not accepted (Withdrawn by BuildingSMART)

You can find what IFC releases are official here

Official BuildingSMART sample IFC files can be found here

BCF

Topics - bcfzip (bcf 2.0), bcf (bcf 2.1, bcf 3,0)

PDF

Documents - pdf (1.x to 2.0), pdf/a (1,2,3), xfdf, fdf

Comments - PDF comments will be visible when uploading a pdf

Images

There are several ways to display open standard images on Catenda Hub:

Documents - png, gif (static image only)

Issues - Text formatting - png, gif (animated)

You can add a link to a public image in the comment of text in a description or comment of an issue.

Issues - Viewpoints - png, gif (static image only)

You can attach an image to a comment of an issue.

Proprietary image formats

See proprietary image formats here

Video

Videos - Mp4, WebM, OGG

Open office

Documents - odt, ods

Proprietary office formats

See proprietary image formats here

Rich text

Documents - xml

Plain text

Documents - txt

Point Clouds

Documents - e57, las

3D view

Point clouds can be viewed in 3D in the documents section.

This 3D view can also be opened in the 3D viewer.

Proprietary file formats

There are a lot of file format standards developed by organizations that are used by many.

It is important for us that it is easy to use Catenda. We therefore do our best to support as many of the most common filetypes that are used.

Images

There are several ways to display proprietary image formats on Catenda Hub:

Open standard image formats

Open standard image formats can be found here

Documents - bmp, wmf, emf, jpg, tif, tiff

Topics - Text formatting - bmp, jpg

You can add a link to a public image in the comment of text in a description or comment of an issue.

Topics - Viewpoints - jpg

You can attach an image to a comment of an issue.

Autodesk

Documents - dwg, dxf, dwf

Vector graphics

Vector graphics will be displayed with cad formats

Bentley

Documents - dgn

Vector graphics

Vector graphics will be displayed with cad formats

Microsoft

Open standard office formats

see open standard office formats here

Documents - Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher - doc, xls, ppt, pub

Documents - Microsoft Office Open XML - docx, pptx, xlsx, xlsm

Documents - Email - Outlook - msg

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