3DS is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D modeling, animation and rendering software. It was the native file format of the old Autodesk 3D Studio DOS (releases 1 to 4), which was popular until its successor (3D Studio MAX 1.0) replaced it in April 1996. Having been around since 1990 (when the first version of 3D Studio DOS was launched), it has grown to become a de facto industry standard for transferring models between 3D programs, or for storing models for 3D resource catalogs (along with OBJ, which is more frequently used as a model archiving file format). While the 3DS format aims to provide an import/export format, retaining only essential geometry, texture and lighting data, the related MAX format (now superseded by the PRJ format) also contains extra information specific to Autodesk 3ds Max, to allow a scene to be completely saved/loaded.

AutoCAD DXF (Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format) is a CAD data file format developed by Autodesk for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs. DXF was originally introduced in December 1982 as part of AutoCAD 1.0, and was intended to provide an exact representation of the data in the AutoCAD native file format, DWG (Drawing), for which Autodesk for many years did not publish specifications. Because of this, correct imports of DXF files have been difficult. Autodesk now publishes the DXF specifications as a PDF on its website. Versions of AutoCAD from Release 10 (October 1988) and up support both ASCII and binary forms of DXF. Earlier versions support only ASCII. As AutoCAD has become more powerful, supporting more complex object types, DXF has become less useful. Certain object types, including ACIS solids and regions, are not documented. Other object types, including AutoCAD 2006's dynamic blocks, and all of the objects specific to the vertical market versions of AutoCAD, are partially documented, but not well enough to allow other developers to support them. For these reasons many CAD applications use the DWG format which can be licensed from Autodesk or non-natively from the Open Design Alliance. DXF coordinates are always without dimensions so that the reader or user needs to know the drawing unit or has to extract it from the textual comments in the sheets.

CAD data exchange is a modality of data exchange used to translate data between different Computer-aided design (CAD) authoring systems or between CAD and other downstream CAx systems. Many companies use different CAD systems internally and exchange CAD data with suppliers, customers and subcontractors. Transfer of data is necessary so that, for example, one organization can be developing a CAD model, while another performs analysis work on the same model; at the same time a third organization is responsible for manufacturing the product. The CAD systems currently available in the market differ not only in their application aims, user interfaces and performance levels, but also in data structures and data formats therefore accuracy in the data exchange process is of paramount importance and robust exchange mechanisms are needed. The exchange process targets primarily the geometric information of the CAD data but it can also target other aspects such as metadata, knowledge, manufacturing information, tolerances and assembly structure. There are three options available for CAD data exchange: direct model translation, neutral file exchange and third-party translators.

COLLADA (COLLAborative Design Activity) is an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. It is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, and has been adopted by ISO as a publicly available specification, ISO/PAS 17506. COLLADA defines an open standard XML schema for exchanging digital assets among various graphics software applications that might otherwise store their assets in incompatible file formats. COLLADA documents that describe digital assets are XML files, usually identified with a .dae (digital asset exchange) filename extension.

Design Web Format (DWF) is a secure file format developed by Autodesk for the efficient distribution and communication of rich design data to anyone who needs to view, review, or print design files. Because DWF files are highly compressed, they are smaller and faster to transmit than design files, without the overhead associated with complex CAD drawings (or the management of external links and dependencies). With DWF functionality, publishers of design data can limit the specific design data and plot styles to only what they want recipients to see and can publish multisheet drawing sets from multiple AutoCAD drawings in a single DWF file. They can also publish 3D models from most Autodesk design applications. DWF files are not a replacement for native CAD formats such as AutoCAD drawings (DWG). The sole purpose of DWF is to allow designers, engineers, project managers, and their colleagues to communicate design information and design content to anyone needing to view, review, or print design information – without these team members needing to know AutoCAD or other design software. An Autodesk DWF advocate blog cites as DWFs strengths over alternatives that the files have very high mathematical precision, and contain meta-data for sheets, objects and markup data. Another significant strength is that comments and markup can be reintroduced to, and edited in, some Autodesk products, such as Revit and AutoCAD. The AutoCAD file format (.dwfx) is based on ISO/IEC 29500-2:2008 Open Packaging Conventions.

FBX (Filmbox) is a proprietary file format (.fbx) developed by Kaydara and owned by Autodesk since 2006. It is used to provide interoperability between digital content creation applications. FBX is also part of Autodesk Gameware, a series of video game middleware.

The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) (pronounced eye-jess) is a vendor-neutral file format that allows the digital exchange of information among computer-aided design (CAD) systems. The official title of IGES is Digital Representation for Communication of Product Definition Data, first published in January, 1980 by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards as NBSIR 80-1978. Many documents (like early versions of the Defense Standards MIL-PRF-28000 and MIL-STD-1840) referred to it as ASME Y14.26M, the designation of the ANSI committee that approved IGES Version 1.0. Using IGES, a CAD user can exchange product data models in the form of circuit diagrams, wireframe, freeform surface or solid modeling representations. Applications supported by IGES include traditional engineering drawings, models for analysis, and other manufacturing functions.

Intergraph Standard File Formats (ISFF) are the file formats common to MicroStation and Intergraph's Interactive Graphics Design System (IGDS). ISFF is made available to the public, so that third-party developers could create applications for MicroStation that read and write ISFF format without a license from Intergraph. Design files, or DGN files (*.dgn) are binary files with variable-length records for graphic elements, and non-graphic data. Cell library files (*.cel) are binary files that store cell definitions for placement in design files. MicroStation versions 8 and newer support the V8 DGN file format, but which has a different internal data structure than the ISFF-based DGN. In cases where there is potential for confusion, ISFF-based DGN may be called Intergraph DGN, or V7 DGN. Autodesk has chosen not to support DGN in AutoCAD 2006, although it does support the format in its Map3D, Land Desktop, and Civil3D products.

STEP-File is the most widely used data exchange form of STEP. ISO 10303 can represent 3D objects in Computer-aided design (CAD) and related information. Due to its ASCII structure a STEP-file is easy to read with typically one instance per line. The format of a STEP-File is defined in ISO 10303-21 Clear Text Encoding of the Exchange Structure. ISO 10303-21 defines the encoding mechanism for representing data conforming to a particular schema in the EXPRESS data modeling language specified in ISO 10303-11. A STEP-File is also called p21-File and STEP Physical File. The file extensions .stp and .step indicate that the file contains data conforming to STEP Application Protocols while the extension .p21 should be used for all other purposes.

JT (Jupiter Tesselation) is an ISO-standardized 3D data format and is in industry used for product visualization, collaboration, CAD data exchange, and in some also for long-term data retention. It can contain any combination of approximate (faceted) data, boundary representation surfaces (NURBS), Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI), and Metadata (textual attributes) either exported from the native CAD system or inserted by a product data management (PDM) system.