Verband der Automobilindustries Flachenschnittstelle (VDAFS):

This interface was established by the Association of the German Automobile Industry for the transfer of 3-D curves & surfaces for which IGES just offers an unsatisfactory solution. Two of versions of this interface have been developed and are described in Frankfurt Verbandder Auto Mobil industries (1983) and Mund, et. al. (1987).

Similar to IGES, the VDAFS interface have a fixed record length of 80 characters. A file contains a header and a data section. The header defined the data source, the project name, the validity date, the origination date, the source CAD system and the user. In the data section the geometric objects are explained with the help of entities. Characteristic for the data presentation is an APT-oriented data format.

Elements of the VDAFS version 2.0 are illustrated in Table. Curves and surfaces are defined along with the help of points, set of points and set of vectors (Table).

Table: Elements of VDAFS Version 2.0

Along the VDAFS interface this is possible to transfer any defined workpiece surface, by including the orientation of the cutting tool. Problems include the transfer of text, dimensions, cross-hatching etc. Additionally, single elements are attained by the user in a basic atomic format and are hard to use for further processing. Another problem is that the interface has inadequate means of structuring data.