Convert IGES or IGS to PLY online

Upload your .iges or .igs file to the converter at the top of this page and download one binary PLY mesh in millimetres. FreeCAD, which is free, can also open an IGES and export a mesh. Marathon OS is the paid route if you don't have CAD at hand: first 2 files free, then 1 credit per file.

First 2 files free, any size up to 300 MB. After that, 1 credit per file. Credit packs bring it down to $1.80 per file. Prices include tax, you pay only when you click Download and credits never expire.

Yes. .igs is the short extension for IGES; both convert the same way.

Binary, little-endian: the compact form MeshLab, CloudCompare and Open3D read. If you need ASCII, open it in MeshLab and export with Binary encoding turned off.

No. IGES colours don't carry over to our PLY.

Yes. Load the PLY and your scan in CloudCompare, align them and run a cloud-to-mesh distance to see where the scan departs from the CAD. At our setting, facets on large curves can sit up to about 1 mm from the true surface, so keep that in mind when you read small distances.

Millimetres. PLY has no unit field, so set the unit or scale in the program you open it in if it expects metres. We read the unit stored in the IGES, so an inch file comes out at the right size.

Every IGES is meshed at a 1.0 mm chord tolerance and about 29° between neighbouring triangles. On files under 20,000 faces and 200 solids, a part that doesn't come out closed is meshed again finer, down to 0.1 mm. Meshes over 100,000 triangles are reduced to about 100,000, unless that would open the mesh or change its size. There are no quality presets.

Yes, two ways. Export the mesh from your CAD program at a smaller deviation; FreeCAD, which is free, opens IGES files. Or convert IGES to STEP first: our STEP to PLY converter meshes at a 0.15 mm chord tolerance. That's two conversions.

Every part keeps its assembled position, merged into one mesh without part names.

Yes. Every conversion comes with a free quality report with 12 checks, including whether the mesh is watertight, degenerate triangles, mesh uniformity, a bounding-box match with the IGES and how much of the surface the mesh covers. For a surface-only IGES, the solid and watertight checks are marked not applicable.

IGES files from any CAD program, as .iges or .igs, up to 300 MB. We read both solids (type 186) and trimmed surfaces (type 144). Files that use commas as decimal points, which some SolidWorks setups write, are fixed before reading.

To upload your own file, sign in with Google or an emailed code. The sample file works without signing in.

It depends on the file. Large assemblies can take several minutes, and we email you when the file is ready.

Uploads and downloads use HTTPS. Uploaded and converted files are deleted automatically after 7 days, and converted files aren't added to the public CAD library unless you publish them. You keep ownership of your design. See the Privacy Policy.