Generate photorealistic image from STEP files with blender What is the best way to generate photorealistic images of CAD data? We have CAD data of screws, plates, molds etc in different formats. Most of them in STEP. 

We have read older posts saying that it is not possible to directly import STEP files to Blender. Does this still hold true? What formats does blender accept when it comes do render photorealistic images?
Simple in 5 steps:

1- Convert the CAD data into a format that can be imported by blender. 

2- Switch to cycles render engine. 

3- Create realistic materials, assign them to your objects and light the scene in a realistic way.

4- Render. 

5- The most important step: Forget about magic buttons that will do all of the previous 4 steps for you, this will require you to do some work and learn how to use the software.