Cape Pack and TOPS Pro

Cape Pack (Esko) and TOPS Pro (TOPS Software) work out how cases and cartons are packed and loaded onto pallets. Their own formats aren't published, so ParametrIQ CAD writes only what each one's maker documents a way to bring in, and tells you what to type in yourself. Both are in File › Export › Export for Pallet Software.

Program	What ParametrIQ writes	What you do there
TOPS Pro	A text file of the case for TOPS's TOPSData import (`.txt`)	Import › TOPSData, and choose the file
Cape Pack	The folded case as a COLLADA 3D model (`.zae`, or `.dae`), and its sizes in the messages	Drag the `.zae` into Create New Shape, and type the sizes into the pack's details

Where the values come from

Both exports start from what the drawing says about the case:

Length, width and height: the variables L, W and D, which every drawing starts with and the app's packaging styles (Run Parametric) and Ask Claude's drawings size the case by. The height is the depth, D (the styles' H is the panel height worked out from it).
Inside or outside: what the label of L says ("Length (inside)" in the app's styles). A label that says neither is taken as inside.
Box style: the drawing's classification style (File › Drawing Properties).
Board: the material's board properties: BOARD says whether it is corrugated, and FLUTE the flute. A drawing without them is taken as corrugated when its style is a FEFCO one.
Caliper: the material's thickness, T.
Weight: ParametrIQ doesn't work out a case's weight. If your drawing has a variable WEIGHT (the case's own weight: kg in a millimetre drawing, lb in an inch drawing), it is used.

TOPS Pro

TOPS Software's document TOPS Import describes a text file TOPS Pro imports into its database: one record per line, its fields separated by commas, text in quotes (it must be when it holds a comma), and a field left blank given TOPS's default. Tags on lines of their own say the units of the values below them, and a section's header says what the records are.

File › Export › Export for Pallet Software › Export to TOPS Pro… shows what will be written, each from the drawing to start with:

Option	What it is
Write as	A Ship case (TOPS's `[Ship Case]` section) or a Carton (its `[Carton]` section). TOPS's document says cartons should normally be entered as ship cases that aren't corrugated.
Name	What TOPS calls the case: the drawing's file name to start with. TOPS takes up to 21 characters; a longer name is cut.
Box style	The name of a style in TOPS's Box Styles database. A drawing classified as FEFCO 0201 starts with `RSC`; any other style starts empty (TOPS's default), as ParametrIQ can't know the names in your database. Type the name TOPS uses.
The sizes are	Inside or outside sizes.
Length, Width, Height	Each a number or an expression of the drawing's variables (`L`, `L+2T` …), in the drawing's units; the height is through the flaps. Worked out* shows the values.
Material	Corrugated (fluted), written with its flute, or Other (by caliper), written with its caliper. Ship cases only.
Flute	The flute's letter, as TOPS names it (`A`, `B`, `C` …). TOPS's document gives the flute as one letter; for double wall, check what your TOPS uses.
Caliper	The board's thickness (`T`): written for a carton, and for a ship case that isn't corrugated.
Tare weight	The case's own weight, if you know it. Ship cases only; left empty, it isn't written.
Write to	A new file, or The end of an existing file (you then choose the file): TOPS adds what it imports to its database, so one file can hold several cases.

Whether it is a ship case or a carton, and a new file or added to one, are remembered for next time (separately for millimetre and inch drawings); the rest comes from the drawing each time.

What is written

The units' tag ([DIST_MM] for a millimetre drawing, [DIST_IN] for an inch drawing; and [WGT_KG] or [WGT_LB] when there is a tare weight), the section's header, and the record. Only the fields ParametrIQ has are written; the others are left blank, and those after the last one given are left off, as in the document's examples. A FEFCO 0201, 400 × 300 × 250 mm inside, in B flute:

[DIST_MM]
[Ship Case]
"RSC 400x300x250",M,I,"RSC","B",C,,,,400,300,250,

Ship case field	Written
A Name	The name, in quotes
B Units	`M` (metric) for a millimetre drawing, `E` (English) for an inch drawing: how TOPS shows it
C Dimensions	`I` inside or `O` outside
D Box Style	The box style, in quotes (blank if none)
E Flute	The flute, in quotes, for corrugated board (blank if none)
F Material	`C` corrugated or `O` other
G Caliper	The caliper, for other material (blank for corrugated, as the document says)
J, K, L	Length, width and height
Z Tare Weight	The tare weight, if given

A carton is written as its section's fields A to H: name, units, inside or outside, box style, length, width, height and caliper ("Carton one",E,O,"Tuck",5,4,3,0.018,).

Numbers are written with a full stop for the decimal point, to four decimals at most. A quote in a name is written as an apostrophe (the document gives no way to write one). The file is plain text without a byte order mark, its lines ending CR LF. TOPS's document names no extension for the file; ParametrIQ saves it as .txt.

In TOPS Pro

Use Import › TOPSData and choose the file. The document says imports are added to the database: to take a case out again, delete it in TOPS.

Cape Pack

Cape Pack's documentation describes no file it reads a case's sizes from: they are typed into the pack's details. Its user guide (Cape Pack user guide, Creating Shapes) says a COLLADA .ZAE file can be dragged into Create New Shape (or chosen to upload), then its shape type chosen and its name and thickness entered.

File › Export › Export for Pallet Software › Export to Cape Pack…, on a 3D page:

Writes the folded case as it is shown (folded as far as it is now) as a COLLADA model: a .zae, or a .dae if you choose that type. A model you imported to show with it isn't written.
Shows in the messages the sizes to type into Cape Pack: the length, width and depth (inside or outside, as the drawing says), the caliper (Cape Pack's thickness), the weight if the drawing has a WEIGHT, and the folded model's overall size.
On a 3D page with a pallet scene, writes the case on its own (not the pallet or the other cases) and adds the 3D page's pallet plan to the messages (cases a layer, layers, pattern, load height), to compare with what Cape Pack works out.

Then, in Cape Pack, drag the .zae into Create New Shape, choose its shape type, and enter its name and the thickness. Enter the case's dimensions and weights in the pack's details, where its user guide says (inside or outside dimensions, thickness, net and gross weight).

If the page you are on isn't a 3D page, ParametrIQ says so (make one with 3D › Fold in 3D, or go to the drawing's 3D page) and asks whether to show the sizes only; No stops there.

What is written

COLLADA is the Khronos Group's open format for 3D models. The .dae is a COLLADA 1.4.1 document: its asset says the unit is the millimetre and that Z is up; each part (the outside faces, the inside faces and the cut edges) is a geometry of triangles with their normals, with a material in its colour; and the scene places each part once. A .zae is a zip holding the .dae and a manifest.xml whose dae_root names it, as COLLADA 1.5 describes the zipped form.

3D › Export › Export 3D Model… can write COLLADA too (.dae or .zae), with the model shown on the 3D page, and 3D › Models and Products › Import Model… reads COLLADA, from ParametrIQ CAD and other programs. See COLLADA.

To see the load in 3D, give the drawing a pallet scene: its 3D page stacks the folded case (or plain cases of the sizes the TOPS Pro export writes, SHIPPER="CASE") on a EUR, GMA or other pallet by a column or interlocked pattern.

To email the file instead of saving it, use File › Send by Email › Export to Cape Pack… or Export to TOPS Pro… (adding to a TOPS file you have can't be emailed: export it as a new file). See Emailing exports. See also: File Formats, 3D pages, Materials, Classification.