As an alternative to creating your solid models within Mechanical APDL, you can create them in your favorite CAD system and then import them into Mechanical APDL for analysis, by saving them in the IGES file format or in a file format supported by the Mechanical APDL Connection capability. Creating a model using a CAD package has the following advantages:
You avoid a duplication of effort by using existing CAD models to generate solid models for analysis.
You use more familiar tools to create models.
However, models imported from CAD systems may require extensive repair if they are not of suitable quality for meshing.
For more information on importing solid models from IGES files, see Importing Solid Models from IGES Files. For more information on importing solid models from other types of files, see the Connection User's Guide.