Converting an stl to a surface

[gcode]

Does anyone know a method of coverting an stl file to surfaces or solids???

[cadcam]

can not be done with MC I think you can do it with Solid View.At least as I can remember.

 

Try going here and looking

[Mick]

heh...I've been down that road several times. Solidview will do it, though if the STL file is huge, and/or very complex, it will choke your system, creating a huge IGES file. Basically, it creates a nurbs surface at every triangulation.

Apparently Raindrop Geomagic can do it also, though I think it is in the same fashion as Solidview.

[David S]

quote:

---

Does anyone know a method of coverting an stl file to surfaces or solids???

---

So far as I know, there is no anything can coverting a stl file to surfaces or solids. To be exact, there are some very expensive softwares, which can recreate surfaces from stl file. Still, it needs you doing a lot of personal retouches on the new surfaces you create from stl file (you better have a very good pc system). The time and money you spend on that dose not pay. The easy and cheap way to do that is to cnc cut a model from the stl file and laser digitize the model after.

[JSP Mold]

gcode,

 

I posted this same question on the forum a couple of month ago. Since then I have done alot research and have found out these results.

 

1. Supossedly UG has the ability to convert STL models to surface models, thats what a couple of sales guys have told me. We have a seat of UG here but I cannot find anyone that has actually done it using UG so they can walk me thru it.

 

2. Raindrop Geomagic will do it. For $12,000 you can purchase their Shape package. You can get an evaluation copy to play with, but it does not allow you export anything. I have been playing around with it alittle bit and am very impressed! You can spend as much or as little time as you want(depending on what accuracy your looking for) defining and tweaking the surface boundries. I am currently trying to convince management here to purchace a seat for our facility.

 

I hope this information is helpfull. E-mail me if you have any questions and I will try to answer them for you.

[kwolf]

As well as Geomagic Raindrop, DELCAM CopyCAD , Alias|wavefront Studio Tools+Spider, SDRC imageware surfacer can do it .

[mbuster]

UG CAN DO IT BUT ITS A ADD ON....SO I AM TOLD...

[David S]

If you do not have cnc machine and do not have many complicated stl files to work on, buy a cheap software name RHINOCEROS. It can trace the points on the stl shape and with those points you could make very accurate surfaces. Rino is a very user-friendly software with a very short learning curve you could become a master. It is an amazing surface software with samll price (few hundred dollars).

[JSP Mold]

Im looking for someone who has used RHINO to create surfaces from an STL. I was wondering if you could walk me thru the prosedure for accomplishing this task. I downloaded an evaluation copy of RHINO and have been trying to figure it out, but have not had any luck.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!

[kwolf]

As far as I know, there's an an addin for Rhino that does the job.

[Mark H]

JSP Mold, I too have downloaded the evaluation and have been playing with the same features.

 

Try this, File, Import your STL file, then Surface, Drape then window around the STL geometry and hit the Enter key to accept the command. Thats really as far as I got... Also look up Drape in the the help.

 

[ 08-23-2002, 08:27 AM: Message edited by: Mark H ]

[JSP Mold]

Mark,

I also have found and tried the Drape surface command. It actually works pretty slick! I draped a surface over the entire part in a matter of just seconds, but its not very accurate and I think MC would have a tough time applying toolpath to it. The application im trying to use this for does not require real high accuracy, but I need al ittle more accuracy then the resultant surface I got.

 

One idea I had is to take and drape thousands of points over the STL, and then create (hopefully more accurate) surfaces from those points. I haven't had time to give it a try yet, but hopefully it will work.

[ProductDevelopmentGuy]

If you're trying to make the surfaces/solids just so you can machine them in Mastercam, don't forget that V9 lets you do any Surface toolpath directly on the STL file - no geometry necessary.

PDG

[JSP Mold]

PDG,

 

I tried to machine the STL in MC. It took a very long time. Took about an hour to pocket rough down 4" with a 2" tool. The overall part height is 12". And after the 2" tool I have to take a 1" tool and clean out any areas that the 2" tool could not get into. The STL machining might work pretty good on smaller parts, but I can't wait that long for it to cut my parts. Besides, it would be nice to have the surface geometry there.

 

I have looked at the Geomagic software, and it will create surfaces from the STL very nicely. I sent some STL files to one of the applications engineers at Geomagic and had him create a couple of models for me. He spent an hour creating the surface model for me. And when I applied the same rough pocket toolpath to the surface model, MC generated it in about 5 minutes.

The downside to the Geomagic software is the $12k pricetag. That is why I am currently looking at the $2k RHINO software.

[Mark H]

JSP Mold, have you looked into Revquick? It is a stand alone program, but somehow links in with Mastercam. It is from the makers of Geomagic.

 

[ 08-23-2002, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: Mark H ]

[JSP Mold]

Mark,

 

I've never heard of it. Would you happen to know how good it works or what the cost of it is?

[Mark H]

The only thing I know about it is what I read on that web page. It looks like it reads in point cloud data (points) not an STL file. Sorry I have not used it so I cant offer anymore info. I talked to my Mastercam reseller about it breifly and they where going to get a copy themselves and play with it. I cant remember the price he quoted, however in this post someone said its half the price of Raindrop Geomagic.

[BernieT]

quote:

---

I also have found and tried the Drape surface command. It actually works pretty slick!

---

In Rhino, 'Surface-Drape' works well on mesh or STL models and 'Surface-Patch' works well on a point cloud. Neither is perfect but by working at it you can get some amazing results. I don't think anybody can walk you thru it easily, it just takes lots of practice. Rhino is very user friendly and has some powerful tools but it will take time to master.

 

BerTau

[Mark H]

Another peice of software to look at...

copycad