The proposed approach in the paper is dedicated to enrichment of CAD models storage in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) systems or archive databases. The paper considers low level CAD models (i.e. frozen geometry and without CAD model tree) based on standards such as STL, IGES and STEP AP203 first edition where the CAD model tree is absent. The paper also highlights the differences in semantic richness between these standards and their degrees of industrial implementation. STEP AP242 standard is considered as a high level representation for CAD files. The paper aims to review the literature that addresses the methods for semantic enrichment of CAD models by using ontologies. The future challenges and one possible research direction are then discussed. A first application called VAQUERO for CAD enrichment using an ontology based on STEP AP242 standard is proposed.