Theorem Solutions recently released version 21.3 of its Inventor to JT Visualize 3D translator, which supports Autodesk Inventor 2017, 2018 and 2019, and up to and including the JT file format version 10.0.

Theorem’s Visualize 3D products are aimed at creating visualization data for users of digital mock-up, virtual reality or desktop applications and support the translation of assembly structure, geometry and attributes.

The Inventor to JT translator has been developed using the Autodesk Inventor Development Environment and translates up to and including the latest versions of Inventor data into the JT file format. The translator can be run using the freely available Inventor View application as a minimum system requirement, so access to a full license of Inventor is not required. The translator processes all JT assembly types, regardless of data structure.

A new user interface helps the development and streamlining of translation and downstream processes by allowing engineering data to be filtered, viewed, interrogated, manipulated and translated interactively or in batches with the ability to publish user specific documentation.

Since the JT open standard became ISO certified in 2012 and then ISO-revised in 2017, the 3D data format, many, if not most, CAD programs have adopted JT functionality.

ISO JT V2 , the revised ISO standard, includes the incorporation of a STEP B-rep as an additional B-rep segment.

JT is a standardized 3D data format used for product visualization, collaboration, CAD data exchange, and sometimes for long-term data retention. The JT file format can store an arbitrary number of faceted representations with varying levels of detail. It can contain any combination of data, including NURBS surfaces, product and manufacturing information (PMI), and metadata, either exported from native CAD systems or inserted into product data management systems.

Theorem’s strategic partnerships with Autodesk and Siemens  ensures that there is a parallel development between the latest releases of Inventor, JT and Theorem’s Visualize 3D products, allowing Theorem to continue to provide data solutions to the Inventor and JT communities.

JT is particularly useful to CAD visualization systems, which don’t need the full capacity of the original CAD system. Rather, suppliers and others can view the CAD drawing without the need for access to the CAD program it was created with. JT is useful here because it can house lightweight geometry and product manufacturing information from CAD systems.

The JT standard was originally created by Engineering Animation and Hewlett Packard and at that time it was called Jupiter Tessellation. By dictionary definition, a tessellation is an arrangement of shapes closely fitted together, especially of polygons in a repeated pattern without gaps or overlapping. Following a series of company acquisitions, the 3D data format is now under the purview of Siemens PLM Software, headquartered in Plano, Texas. JT is the common interoperability format in use across all of Siemens PLM Software and has been adopted as the long-term data archival format across all of Siemens.

The format was originally created to support the interactive display of very large assemblies containing tens of thousands of components. When the whole product is displayed on the computer screen, the hosting the visualizing application displays only a simple model. However, as the user zooms into a particular area, progressively finer representations are loaded and displayed. Over time, unused representations are unloaded to save memory.