A system and method for converting data generated in a computer aided design software component to an alternate, smaller format usable by a variety of alternate software components is provided. CAD data from a project having a plurality of objects is provided. Objects are identified and grouped into object data layers for processing, conversion and 3D model generation. The selected, grouped objects are processed by removing unnecessary data and redundancies, converted to an alternate format, transported to the alternate software component and regenerated by the alternate software component in its own environment.