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AVEVA™ Gateway for 3D Data

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Extract Navisworks

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  • Last UpdatedNov 17, 2025
  • 5 minute read

The Gateway can extract data from a variety of input sources located in either a local File System or an Amazon Web Services (AWS) in an S3 Bucket. The details of the particular source to be read by the project are defined in the extract configuration in the <input> element, via the source parameter, for example, <Input source="FileSystem">.

Note: The values of the source attribute can be a case-insensitive representation of either "FileSystem" or "S3".

The input sources from where the Gateway can extract data are as follows:

  • Navisworks (.NWD files)

  • AutoCAD 3D (AutoCAD .DWG/.DXF 3D models)

  • IFC - (Industry Foundation Classes)

  • PCF - (Piping Component Files)

The Gateway can extract .NWD (Navisworks Document) input files.

Note: An NWD file serves as a snapshot of the current state of a model within Navisworks. It contains all model geometry along with Navisworks-specific data, such as review markups. It compresses the CAD data, reducing the file size by up to 80% compared to the original. These files are compact, snapshot-like representations of models, making them ideal for sharing and collaboration in the context of Navisworks projects.

Navisworks files are highly compressed, hence a moderate-sized NWD file can contain an extreme number of elements which require a lot of memory to process and may result in a large ZGL file that is too big to be imported into AIM. When this is likely, two types of warnings may be logged, therefore when processing large files, it is good practice to open the log file to decide whether the Gateway process is likely to take too long to process due to not enough RAM or should be canceled if the expected ZGL is too big to be imported into AIM.

  • When the estimated maximum memory level is too large the warning will be of the form:

    "The input NWD model has 909 million faces which will require about 182 GB of free RAM to process normally. It might still process with less free RAM but will then take much longer to process, or it might fail to process."

  • When the estimated output ZGL file size is likely to be too big:

    "The output ZGL model will be about 15 GB which may have issues loading into AIM."

    Review from here: https://dev.azure.com/AVEVA-VSTS/Interoperability/_workitems/edit/4359930

    Notes:

  • You need to remove any password protection from NWD files, via Navisworks Manage, before processing in the Gateway.

  • Missing XDATA from original AutoCAD models: Navisworks doesn't support the import of XDATA attributes while importing AutoCAD models, therefore they are also absent when importing the Navisworks models into AIM.

  • Units displayed in Navisworks may be different: in Navisworks Manage the displayed units can be controlled through the 'Options Editor' tab, but this doesn't change the units stored in the NWD file, hence when extracted by the Gateway they will have the same equivalent value but may be in units different to those displayed in Navisworks.

  • Conversion of hexadecimal values to decimal: Navisworks values that are in hexadecimal format (for example, handle values imported from AutoCAD models) are imported as their equivalent decimal values when imported by the Gateway.

  • User Data Attributes in Navisworks files: In Navisworks, users can add their own custom attributes to any item in the model scene, as User Data tabs. They are extracted like any other attribute.

    Review from here: https://dev.azure.com/AVEVA-VSTS/Interoperability/_workitems/edit/4079071/

  • Navisworks creates and maintains a set of attributes for each element within an NWD model, categorized by tabs. The ones most pertinent to tag identifications are Name and PersistentId under the "Item" attributes tab. To enhance the uniqueness of these attributes (for example, another tab may also have a Name attribute) the tab name "Item_" is added as a prefix to these two attributes, resulting in attribute names "Item_Name" and "Item_PersistentId". In addition, when any other attribute name (for example, Type) exists under multiple property type tabs (for example, Item, PDMS), these also have their tab name added as a prefix to ensure uniqueness (for example, Item_Type, PDMS_Type).

To specify how to extract the .NWD data:

  1. Click Extract to display the Extract Navisworks: <ProjectName> field.

  2. Select the type of Input Source from the drop-down box.

    For FileSystem:

  3. Define the Input Path for the location of the input files (.NWD files), either typing directly or use the Browse File Path to select a single file or Browse Folder Path to select a folder of files.

  4. Select Save Settings.

    For S3:

    To configure the extractor for S3 Bucket as input source:

  5. Define the elements in S3 Credential Details section. For more information, see Accessing an AWS S3 Bucket.

  6. If you want to test connection to S3 Bucket, click Test Connection. The result of the test is displayed in the bottom left status bar.

  7. Click Save Settings to save the settings.

    Review from Here: https://dev.azure.com/AVEVA-VSTS/Interoperability/_workitems/edit/3955735/

Conditional Processing

Large NWD models can cause problems during processing and loading results to target systems. Functionality allows you to stop processing NWD files if the number of graphical elements is likely to produce an output ZGL file that is too large to be imported into AIM (currently 9 GB, due to a limitation with 3DVS).

Before reading the entire file, the Navisworks extractor calculates the expected number of graphical elements. This calculation is then used to estimate the size of the output ZGL file and the RAM usage needed to process the model. Note that these predictions are uncertain due to the varying complexity of different models.

The Gateway can be configured to stop processing at this early stage, based on the predicted values, by setting the 'ProcessingConditions' node options in the Extractor configuration file, these are:

  • maxFacesNumber - natural numbers (0, 1, 2, ...)

  • maxZglSizeGB - positive floating point numbers

  • maxMemoryUsageGB - positive floating point numbers

For example:

<ProcessingConditions maxFacesNumber="1000000" />

You can set any combination of conditions in one configuration, for example:

<ProcessingConditions maxFacesNumber="1000000" maxZglSizeGB="9" />

Further processing will stop if at least one of configured values will be predicted to be exceeded. An appropriate error will be reported.

By default, the settings are not added to the configuration. This means that processing will not be interrupted.

Note: The project setting 'timeOut' works independently, meaning that if processing continues it can still be interrupted after a specified time has passed.

Conditional processing can also be set in batch mode. In this case, you can add the appropriate parameters to the command line:

  • For maximum number of faces: -maxFacesNumber or -mf.

  • For maximum output ZGL file size (in GB): -maxZglSizeGB or -mz.

  • For maxium memory usage (in GB): -maxMemoryUsageGB or -mm.

An example:

AVEVA.NET.Gateways.Data3D.exe -cp “project.xml” -mf 1000000 -mz 9 -mm 60

The configuration is not available in the GUI, so must be added by editing the extractor configuration file.

Note: If you only want to generate a report of the input file structure, set one of the values to '0'. This will interrupt processing, but you will get a log file with useful information about the model. Example setting:

(Extractor configuration file) <ProcessingConditions maxFacesNumber="0"/>

(batch mode) AVEVA.NET.Gateways.Data3D.exe -cp “project.xml” -mf 0

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