UE4CAD - CAD in the Unreal Engine

Created by Tommy Mueller on 20 August, 2019

Best CAD Format for Importing into Unreal Engine?

Once you have the Unreal Engine installed and Unreal Studio, you'll have access to the Datasmith which is a collection of tools and plugins to aid in the conversion of CAD geometry into mesh data suitable for game engines.

Datasmith allows importing several types of CAD data including these file types below:

.sat
.3drep
.3dxml
.dwg
.CATPart
.CATProduct
.cgr
.iges
.igs
.iam
.ipt
.jt
.x_t
.asm
.creo
.neu
.prt
.3dm
.SLDPRT
.SLDASM
.step
.stp

As a SolidWorks user, I've found using a STEP (.step) file format has the best results. It's more stable for curved geometry and irregular compound curves, and will have the least amount of UV overlapping for the Unreal Engine light map baked lighting.

BE SURE TO save your STEP file as the A214 file type to retain the materials in your CAD design!