STL to big for MC?

[Thee Rickster ™]

I have an stl file from portable scanning

device done in polyworks software.

 

The file is 124meg, i can open it in solid

works in 22 secs. When I try to open it in MCX2

I get the white screen of 'yawn'. After 40 mins i

endtask it.

 

i tried to open a 49 meg stl once, it open after

15min but would not rotate and everything lagged

by 10 to 30 secs, views etc.

 

Has anyone else found this problem with stl files?

Or any really large files different format?

 

Thanks

Rick

[Mark H]

Yeah... same problem here with large STL files, very slow loading and rotating views. However I use the trial version of Rhino, to view, shade and rotate the STL file - its really fast for that (and its free.)

 

Edit

I think it has 25 or 30 saves before it wont work anymore. But I just use it for a quick view.

[Guest]

No, Rickster, this was a major PITA a couple of months back.

 

I had a BIG $$$ part to manufacture with a bunch of ops and stress relieves, on the machine, off the machine and as I built through the process, I hit a point about 100 meg where Verify just flat out would NOT work.

 

There was NO MCAM answer.

 

I wound up having to rely on backplot.

 

CADCAM provided me a trial version of Predator which helped some.

 

I feel for you.

 

Verify is a "leased" product that I believe if not every nearly every other CAM software uses but it just seems "something" in the MCAM interface does not allow it to function as reliably as it does in other packages.

 

It desperately needs some TLC

[Thee Rickster ™]

Mark

 

I have rhino 4 trial at work, Ill try it out on

Tueday. but I still have to machine the mould...

 

John,

 

Almost all my molds have to be done 1 component

per .mcx file ie: core, cav, slide, insert

(using solids, forgetaboutit)solid to surfs rocks

 

I have many molds that just the core insert or the

cavity is well over 100 meg. I have to sacrifice

toolpath finish tolerance just to keep the

file size down to work smoother.

 

As a test, I programmed a cavity block in MC

and the file is 113meg. (total tolerances.0005)

(Another software, 11 meg, same toolpaths and

.0003 tolerance.

Analysis:

MC has 10x the internal hidden data?

 

This would not be a problem if it did not cause

MC to malfunction around the 100meg mark and do

strange things.

 

Ah, verify....not going there.

 

Will the cost of maintence solve my problems

yet?

 

(Sorry to rant, but I have to tell my Boss this

tuesday...and then prolly sub the job out)

 

I'll check back in on Sunday

 

thanks

rick

[Allan]

There is no need to open the .stl file in Mastercam as a geometry file to machine it. The .stl file would come in as lines only and does nothing for you. Under the xform menu there is a function called xform stl, this function allows you to read in the file as a mesh, shade it, rotate it, scale it, translate it and create a bounding box arround it and then save it as a new file. The surface toolpaths have an option for selecting a cad file to machine, this is where you select your .stl file. The toolpath will access the .stl file when processing and generate the path to the external .stl file.

 

HTH

 

Allan

[Thee Rickster ™]

Allen,

 

I wish I could read this file into MC.

I want it to come in as lines so that I

can surface it and create a 'mold.'

 

I am not machining it as is.

I have add shrink, split it - core cavity,

create a parting line etc. (the usual)

 

Can you explain how get the file in MC.

in any form?

 

To do any of your suggestions I need to be able to

open the file first. Its 125 meg

 

I cant seem get past the whitescreen as Mc

locks up as I stated before.

 

I tried it again and let go overnight, about 6 hrs

it still wont open.

 

 

Thanks

Rick

 

[ 07-01-2007, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Rickster ]

[Yogesh K. Raman]

we had opened a 180 meg stl file in V9 last time. I just pressed Open, went for lunch, and when I came back Mastercam had done its job. We were just preparing the file for RP. the PC had 2 gig RAM and a high end g-force video card.

 

Most probabably a large STL file can be opened... but it would be too slow to do almost anything with it in any software.

[Thee Rickster ™]

I just emailed the author to regenerate with

half the resolution.

 

How big is too big?

 

Allen

are you at In-house on Tuesday?

 

 

Thanks

Rick

[Thee Rickster ™]

I had the file reduced to a 30meg .stl and MC

cannot open it either. I waited 30 min and end

tasked it.

 

If anybody has a clue what to do, I'd appreciate

any ideas on how to open this file.

 

quote:

---

No, Rickster, this was a major PITA a couple of months back.

---

John,

 

are you implying that, now, as in an update may

have fixed the reading in of large files?

(X2SP1 do I need maintenance to fix this problem?)

 

Please help

 

Thanks

Rick

[Guest]

quote:

---

are you implying that, now, as in an update may

have fixed the reading in of large files?

(X2SP1 do I need maintenance to fix this problem?)

---

I cannot speak to it at this point in time as I have nothing that requires the kind of work.

 

Some how because it is a vendor issue I don't believe it has been addressed as of yet.

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

This is slow because the STL file is defined as triangles, and when creating the Mastercam lines, we are searching to delete the duplicates that would be created where every pair of triangles butt up against each other.

The search is rather simple - you got 10000 triangles, you get 30000 lines, each of which is compared against, at most, the other 29999 lines. 30000 x 29999 is a pretty big number. Now replace 10000 with 1000000 (a million) and that number is now frickin' huge!

This is essentially why we do not recommend using File/Open to import STL files unless you're 1) willing to wait; and 2) aware that all you're going to get are lots of lines.

[Thee Rickster ™]

Pete,

 

Allen from in-house phoned me this morning and

I gave him the low down on this type project.

 

He has a wealth of info on softwares and ppl that

can probably help me on this.

 

I read it in with the xform-stl function to view

the file. I see a the thousands of lines now.

 

It does seem that I will be challenged

in turning the scanned object into mold designs.

 

I am ruling out any stl files to work with, now

that I understand stl's more.

 

I have to get er nurb surfaced now and go from

there.

 

I'll keep this thread updated as the project

solidifies.

 

Once again the forum has helped out a near panic

situation.

 

Thanks for all the help

Rick

[Greg_J]

Hi,

After reading all this, why can't MC load the file and other software's can?

 

At my last shop we used PowerMill and Lemoine and both would load up a STL file in less then in a few seconds. Why can MC do this? What are they missing?

 

 

Just wondering

Greg

[GoetzInd]

quote:

---

this function allows you to read in the file as a mesh, shade it, rotate it, scale it, translate it and create a bounding box arround it and then save it as a new file.

---

Allan,

How in the world do you shade the STL. This wold be very helpful.

 

Mike

[iowajim62]

quote:

---

How in the world do you shade the STL. This wold be very helpful.

---

The same way you shade solids, Alt-S

[Thee Rickster ™]

Greg,

 

MC is more geared to the Machining spectrum of

CAD/CAM. If you are on

maintenance these issues are slowly getting

fixed or improved.

 

I am taxing the limit of file size for mastercam.

I just broke the 220 meg size and climbing.

 

Normally I would split up my mold components

But it is running smooth and efficient.

 

Some other softwares may only be at 30 or 40

meg, but size doesn't matter in this case.

 

As long as you save often MC still processes

very quickly. The paths in MC, individually,

process 2 to 5 times faster regardless of how

large the MC file gets.

 

Hope this clears up some of your concerns.

 

BTW My best and oldest friend lives in Red Deer

 

Rick

 

[ 11-12-2007, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: Rickster ]

[Greg_J]

Don't get me wrong, I think MC is a great program, I'm enjoying learning how to use it. In the past I have used many different software's so it is intresting to see how some excell at some things and others excell at other things.

 

I am on maintenance, and look forward to seeing things get even better.

 

I am originally from Windsor ON. we moved out here 2 years ago, as you probably guessed I work in the oil field sector, very much different from the automotive sector (molds and dies).

 

Regards,

Greg

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

"...why can't MC load the file and other software's can? ..."

 

I think it's actually a matter of "what can mastercam do with STL files"

 

If you read them in via File/Open you'll get lots of lines (and as described above, it takes a long time to separate out the duplicates).

If you want to machine an STL file, just select it as a CAD file in the surface machining functions.

If you want to view it or re-orient it, use Xform/STL (as described above).

 

But...

 

In X3, we've added a "Mesh" entity (which is how Rhino and probably others treat STL Files). You'll be able to use File/Open and go to the 'Options' dialog to select "Import as STL Mesh" and you'll then be able to view it and, if you want, simply select it as you would a surface or solid for any of the surface machining functions.

[Greg_J]

Thanks!

I'll give it a try.

 

Greg