Step 2 Blend v7.2.0

First public release of Step 2 Blend — a Blender addon for importing STEP and STP CAD files at production quality, built around OpenCASCADE.

Install

1. Download the zip for your platform from the assets below
2. In Blender: Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Add-ons ▸ Install ▸ pick the zip
3. Tick the Step 2 Blend checkbox to enable it
4. File ▸ Import ▸ STEP (.step, .stp)

The bundled OpenCASCADE 7.9 runtime ships inside each zip — no separate install required.

Platforms

Zip	Target
Step2Blend-v7.2.0-mac-arm64.zip	macOS 12+ on Apple Silicon
Step2Blend-v7.2.0-windows-x64.zip	Windows 10/11 x86_64

Blender 3.0 or later in either case.

What's in the box

• Analytic NURBS normals — curved surfaces shade smoothly even at coarse triangle counts
• Friendly material naming — STEP colours import as S2B Silver, S2B Dark Blue, etc., not Material_3
• Per-project Material Database — author materials once, apply automatically to every import
• Non-destructive re-import — refresh CAD revisions without losing materials, modifiers, or transforms
• Mesh-instance dedup — assemblies with dozens of identical bolts collapse to a single shared mesh datablock
• Assembly hierarchy preservation — proper STEP assemblies become parent-child trees in the outliner
• Auto-detect file units — reads the unit from the STEP header; manual override available
• Async import — Blender stays responsive; status bar shows progress; Esc cancels

First-launch warnings

Both zips are unsigned. macOS Gatekeeper will say "Apple cannot check it for malicious software" the first time the binary runs — right-click the addon zip and choose Open if needed. Windows SmartScreen may show "Microsoft Defender prevented an unrecognised app" — click More info ▸ Run anyway. Codesigning is on the roadmap.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. Full source is here on GitHub. Issues and PRs welcome.

Bundled OpenCASCADE 7.9.x is LGPL-2.1 — see LICENSES-third-party.txt for full attribution.