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.PRT, .STEP, .STP These are the formats used in part modelling
the formats used in design is .dwj
Hello Faiyazuddin, there are many formats that are popular in the design industry. Your question is so broad but in general, I want to point out two major things::
1) Design tools serve many industries, and consequently, their formats are tailored to serve just that
2) Design tools can read/write data in different formats by using customized translators. The translation process is usually OK but can never be100% :)
In industries like "Animation" , the data that is stored in the file (model or scene) is usually less accurate in terms of geometry, but so rich in terms of data about textures in order to make it easier for the computer to handle and animate. At the end , a visual representation is what you need to get. Examples on this is the OBJ format.
On the other hand, in engineering applications, things are different because geometry, units and material properties are things that really count. Additionally, nurbs are extensively used in creating class A surfaces that have tangent and normal vectors defined for each and every point. This is so crucial for manufacturing, engineering calculations and simulation. Examples on this are ACIS SAT & Parasolid formats, in addition to the dinosaur IGES, STEP & DXF formats.
At the end, all the major players in the market use one of the core formats and manipulate the data to fit their design tool or applications.
Best regards
Fadi