Since PLAXIS 3D 2016 the CAD import functionality has been improved, supporting *.DXF, *.STEP and *.brep formats. NURBS surfaces, solids, splines can now be imported easily.

Native AutoCAD solids can be imported without the need of discretizing them into triangulated objects first. This does not only save you time in AutoCAD , it has benefits for PLAXIS as well. Because of the absence of triangulation, the PLAXIS 3D mesher can more easily create better meshes with less elements for both simple and complex projects, by using the mathematical representations of the imported objects.