How to share a CAD model without sending the file

To share a CAD model without sending the file, upload it to MeshMarkup and send a review link instead. The person opening it can turn the model, zoom in, measure it and leave notes in their browser, but there's no download button, and what they're looking at is a display version of the shape, not your CAD file: no features, sketches, history or editable solids. You choose whether the link can comment or only look, when it expires, and you can switch it off at any time.

#Why not just send the file?

Once a CAD file is in someone's inbox, it's theirs. They can open it in their own CAD, change it, forward it, or send it to another supplier for a cheaper quote. That's fine when they're paying for the design or making the part. It's a risk when they're only meant to look at it: a prospect weighing up a proposal, a client reviewing a concept before they've paid, or a supplier pricing a part you haven't agreed to give them yet.

A link keeps the conversation about the design without handing over the design.

#Share it as a link

1. 1

   Export a STEP, or the format you normally use

   STEP keeps the shape, part names and colours. See how to export STEP.

2. 2

   Upload it to MeshMarkup

   Drop it on your Models page. The file is turned into a display model for the viewer, and that is what MeshMarkup keeps.

3. 3

   Click Share and pick the kind of link

   Look only lets them turn, zoom and measure, with no notes. Leave feedback adds notes and replies.

4. 4

   Set an expiry

   7 days or 30 days for a quote or a proposal, No expiry for an ongoing client. You choose it before creating the link.

5. 5

   Send one link per person

   Each link shows how many times it's been opened, and you can switch off one person's link without affecting anyone else.

See review links and permissions for every setting.

#What the other person gets

• The shape, in 3D: they can turn it, zoom in, hide or isolate parts, cut it open and measure it at its real size.
• Part names and colours, as they were in the file you uploaded.
• Your notes, if you want them to see any. Notes you mark internal stay with your team.

And what they don't get:

• Your CAD file, native or STEP. There's no download or export button on a review link.
• Features, sketches, constraints or history. The viewer shows a display model made of triangles, so there's nothing to open in a CAD program and edit.
• Anything else in your account: other models, other versions, other people's links.

#What a link can't protect

Be clear about the limits:

• Anything shown on a screen can be captured. A screenshot or screen recording shows what the person saw.
• The display model reaches their browser. Someone with technical skills can save it from the browser. It's a mesh, not a CAD file, but it does carry the shape and size, which is enough to make a rough copy or a 3D print.
• Measurements are real. Anyone with a link can measure the model, because that's what a review usually needs.

So a link is the right level of protection for showing work to clients and suppliers. For a design that must stay secret, send only what the review needs (next section), and put an NDA in place before you send anything.

#Send less than the whole design

The best protection is not to include what the other person doesn't need to see:

• Leave out internal parts they aren't reviewing: mechanisms, electronics, fasteners.
• Simplify the part before you export: suppress fillets, internal features or proprietary details that don't matter for the review.
• Send a lighter model. For a mesh, reducing detail keeps the look and loses the precision. See reduce file size.
• Keep the drawing internal. Drawings and documents can be shown to the client or kept for your team, document by document.

#When you're done

Switch the link off from the Share menu under Out there now, or let it expire. Archive or delete the model when the job is over; deleting a model removes its files. See privacy, security and deleting your account for where models are stored and how deletion works.