The MapleSim CAD Toolbox imports CAD models directly into MapleSim, recreating the model components and preserving their kinetic and kinematic properties as well as the spatial relationships between components. It offers feature detection, allowing users to add new coordinates at points of interest, such as the centre of a hole or along the edge of a component, and share coordinate frames between separate bodies, ensuring the bodies will be properly aligned when joined.
The CAD toolbox handles files from virtually any CAD system, through direct support for a large number of proprietary formats, including those from Inventor, NX, and SOLIDWORKS, as well as the STEP and STL files formats. Once in MapleSim, the models can be shared with other MapleSim users, or online using the MapleSim Server, without requiring that the end user have access to the original CAD system or CAD files.