by Garry Stockton
Navisworks For the Wider Construction Team
Navisworks has two products:
- Navisworks Manage
- Navisworks Freedom
Of these, Freedom is a free viewer product that can be downloaded from Autodesk's website. Authoring is done by Manage.
Navisworks file structure
Navisworks files come in three file formats:
- A file that holds the shape and properties of NWC cache objects
- NWF file sets file combinations, cameras, annotation information
- NWD dataset is a file that combines NWC and NWF into one
Image courtesy of Autodesk
NWC-Information on shapes and attributes
Navis can read many files, but when you read any file with Navis, it is converted to "nwc (Navisworks Cache)" format.
NWF-File management information
A file that manages the file set. It stores information such as which nwc was combined and how, where and how the camera and view were placed, and annotation information.
It should be noted that NWF is always a set with NWC. NWF alone cannot display shape and attribute information.
NWD - NWF + NWC
NWD is a compilation of NWF and NWC into a single file. Freedom can only read NWD format files.
Readable files
The file formats that can be read by Navis Works Manage are as follows.
| format | Expand | version |
| Navisworks | .nwd .nwf .nwc | all |
| AutoCAD | .dwg, .dxf | ～ AutoCAD 2016 |
| MicroStation (SE, J, V8 & XM) | .dgn .prp .prw | v7, v8 |
| 3D Studio | .3ds .prj | ～ Autodesk 3ds Max 2016 |
| ACIS SAT | .sat .sab | All ASM SAT. ~ ACIS SAT v7 |
| Catia | .model .session .exp .dlv3 .CATPart .CATProduct .cgr | V4, v5 |
| CIS / 2 | .stp | STRUCTURAL_FRAME_SCHEMA |
| DWF / DWFx | .dwf .dwfx | all |
| FBX | .fbx | FBX SDK 2016.0 |
| IFC | .ifc | IFC2X_PLATFORM, IFC2X_FINAL, IFC2X2_FINAL, IFC2X3, IFC4 |
| IGES | .igs .iges | all |
| Inventor | .ipt .iam .ipj | ～ Inventor 2016 |
| Informatix MicroGDS | .man .cv7 | v10 |
| JT Open | .jt | ~ 10.0 |
| NX | .prt | ~ 9.0 |
| PDS Design Review | .dri | Legacy file format. ~ 2007. |
| Parasolids | .x_b | ~ Schema 26 |
| Pro / ENGINEER | .prt .asm .g .neu | Wildfire 5.0, Creo Parametric 1.0-3.0 |
| RVM | .rvm | ~ 12.0 SP5 |
| Revit | .rvt | 2011 --2016 |
| SketchUp | .skp | v5 ～ 2015 |
| Solidworks | .prt .sldprt .asm .sldasm | 2001 Plus-2015 |
| STEP | .stp .step | AP214, AP203E3, AP242 |
| STL | .stl | Binary only |
| VRML | .wrl .wrz | VRML1, VRML2 |
| all | ||
| Rhino | .3dm | ~ 5.0 |
Image courtesy of Autodesk