[7379df]

I have been searching internet for a program that will convert an stl file to a solid. ie, iges,step,3dm, ect. Found a few programs that I have downloaded but not sure if they are capable of converting a large file. SYSCO Mesh to solid, Mesh lab and Geomagic studio 12 are three that Im trying. Has anyone that has used these programs know if they are capable in converting a large file, as in 180,000 plus Faces and Vertices ? What im trying to accomplish is being able to work with the model so I can extract cetain edges for machining. Of coures with an stl all I can do is get a tool path and sometimes even that is not easy.

Also does anyone know the price of the Geomagic studio 12. I have downloaded the trial and I believe I converted succesfully one file but cant save it to a step or iges until I buy the program. (I've got a feeling its gonna be expensive !!)

Thanks for any help !

[BurrMan]

This is really a poor path to take... Extract the edges of the poliginal data???

The Sycode program will convert the data, but if the STL is large to start with, do you have a computer that will handle the output of the NURBS surfaces??? A 90 MB STL file would most likely look like a 500MB NURBS file.

Your best bet would be to look for a program and solution in your "Modeler" that can do the conversion to NURBS. Maya will convert poly data to NURBS.. It SHOULD bring in STL... There is a company breaking way with a tool for this also.. Integrityware is creating a tool, but I dont know if anyone has integrated it yet... Maybe call them.

The Geomagic package will be exspensive. I think it starts at like 15,000 but I could be wrong. It will definitely be a powerful package too.

[7379df]

Thanks for replying Burrman,
Unfortunately the files that are available for the 3d models im using come in; .stl, .v3m, and .rlf formats. I use BobCAD ver. 24 for posting to our Biesse machines. The company that sells the 3d models also sells a program called apire. This offers alot of flexability in creating, overlapping and editing these 3d models. The only file they output is .V3m which is proprietary to that program. They have there own post processor that supposedly outputs Biesse code. Biesse is not a easy code to create. Bobcad has modified the post many times so not sure if aspires post would even work, not to mention the toolpath options are very limited. Aspire program is around $2000 with a 3d model package. At this point that looks like my only option if it will post to Biesse.
You said something about Maya, is that an add on program or stand alone ?
Thanks again for taking time to reply.

[BurrMan]

You said something about Maya, is that an add on program or stand alone ?
.

Maya is a program from Autodesk:

Maya 3D Animation, Visual Effects, and Compositing Software - Autodesk

But it may be more involved than what you are looking for, and still have results that dont work for you.. Also, it wont be cheap either..

Sycode will work, but I dont know what their Facet limit is, if any..

Rememeber though too, that extracting edges from Poly data will leave you with a bunch of tiny zig-zag line segments.. Most likely would have to be re-worked anyway???

Do you have a sample file we could look at? Maybe I could direct you on a good way to get what you want out of the model.

[awerby]

[QUOTE=7379df;871432]I have been searching internet for a program that will convert an stl file to a solid. ie, iges,step,3dm, ect. Found a few programs that I have downloaded but not sure if they are capable of converting a large file. SYSCO Mesh to solid, Mesh lab and Geomagic studio 12 are three that Im trying. Has anyone that has used these programs know if they are capable in converting a large file, as in 180,000 plus Faces and Vertices ? What im trying to accomplish is being able to work with the model so I can extract cetain edges for machining. Of coures with an stl all I can do is get a tool path and sometimes even that is not easy.

[It's not an automatic process either; you need to identify the shapes you're looking for and tell the program that these are the edges of holes, or curves that define a contour, etc. But Rapidform XOR will retrieve the "design intent" from a scanned-in part (which typically arrives as a STL) and allow you to construct a clean CAD model. Large files are usual for STL files; NURBS or IGES files are generally a lot smaller (not larger) than the STL file they're derived from, since they use mathematically-determined splines to define a surface rather than having to count innumerable tiny polygons. Geomagic 12 will handle large STL files, but it's going to convert them in a general sort of manner, without much concern over the accuracy of critical features.]

Also does anyone know the price of the Geomagic studio 12. I have downloaded the trial and I believe I converted succesfully one file but cant save it to a step or iges until I buy the program. (I've got a feeling its gonna be expensive !!)

[You're right, but I can get you a discount on it. It's easier to use than Rapidform, which I also sell for about the same price, but I'd give Rapidform the edge for the reverse-engineering work you're trying to do, because it is more oriented towards recovering the geometry features you're trying to extract.]


Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[BurrMan]

Large files are usual for STL files; NURBS or IGES files are generally a lot smaller (not larger) than the STL file they're derived from, since they use mathematically-determined splines to define a surface rather than having to count innumerable tiny polygons.

I dont believe this is true... It is true if the shape was "created" with a poly modeler and also "created" with a NURBS package, but "converting" a poly model to a NURBS model is going to be the reverse....

A poly model of any kind of clean resolution of pretend curvature is going to have tens/hundreds of thousands of polygons in it...(each polygon would be converted to a NURBS planar surface) So you can test this by creating a simple plane in your favorite NURBS Cad package, then running a simple array on the object and select say, 50,000 copies....

The only way this holds true for the conversion software, is if it is creating a "new, approxamated" NURBS surface from the poliginal data, which I think you pointed out is "not very accurate" to the original intent anyway... In that case, if you can deviate from the original scan data, just draw some new geometry.

[blowlamp]

You could try this STL to STEP file conversion application

Martin.

[BurrMan]

Hey Martin.. Thats a great little program, though it fails with any significant amount of facets in the STL. I didnt want to recommend it because he specifically mentioned large stl files.

[BurrMan]

Thanks for replying Burrman,
Unfortunately the files that are available for the 3d models im using come in; .stl, .v3m, and .rlf formats.

Can you post a sample file in "RLF" format? I would like to look at this one.

[jazzros]

Hi Guys.

If I understand you correctly, you discuss the problem "Surface Reconstruction" when surface-mesh should be converted to geometry-surfaces?

I suggest you try our free tool: Surface Reconstructor for Blender 3d, where you can load your STL-file to Blender3d and save it to Rhino-3dm file as surfaces(as analytics as NURBS).

http://jazzros.blogspot.com/2011/02/hi-all.html

Hope you enjoy our product and it will be useful for you.
Also hope to hear from you valuable advice and recommendations for improvement.

My team and I sincerely hope to create a good, convenient and healthy product that would be available to all comers.

Waiting for your feedbacks.
Thanks.

[mcphill]

Depending on the OP's needs, you could delete the un-needed STL data using the freeware MeshLab. That would reduce the number of facets of STL data that need to be converted.

MeshLab