STL help

[MotorCityMinion]

Machine a first op, verify, save a STL.

 

Close and open MC, open the STL. All I

get is lines.

 

Close and open MC again, open a para solid, orient it, then import the STL. All I get is lines.

 

What am I doing wrong here? I can't get a Shaded model to appear. Am I only going to see the saved STL while in verify? (Version X, not X2, x3, x4)

 

Thanks in advance.

[kunfuzed]

Last question, yes. What are you trying to do with the stl? Maybe we can help with that?

[Cannon]

X3,(or MU1), was the first version where you could shade an STL. If you use X, then only thing you get is lines shaped in triangles because thats what STL really is.

[Mike-T]

+1, Just a bunch of triangles. I have a question tho... Is there a way to dummy up an stl file ?

I've got a large mcx file, (large for me anyway)

and for roughing down the part I'm using a number of peel mill ops and a quite a few high feed paths with step-overs around .005 to .01. This makes a huge stl file. Currently I'll make simple cuts in a different toolpath group just to keep my stl file within reason. Is there a better way ?

[Mike-T]

Sorry Motercity, didn't mean to hihack your thread. Sometimes I'll swap out my stock for the stl file and display as solid so I can see what I have left to cut. Hope that helps...

[MotorCityMinion]

No problem Mike. You didn't get too far off topic anyway.

 

"What are you trying to do with the stl"?

 

Absolutely nothing if all I can get is over 60k worth of lines. Pushing my luck here perhaps, but how about saving the STL as a para solid or some other format that I could also be able to measure or even create curves from the surfaces if that was possible. Maybe not in MC, but how about some other CAD packages? I was looking for a easy answer. Gonna do some homework on this.

 

Thanks for the help.

[MotorCityMinion]

Just found this:

 

"If it is a somewhat simple STL I have been able to import it in to Solidworks as a solid. It is on the settings page when you go to import it.

Hopefully you have access to solidworks. There was a STL to surfaces C-hook in older version of mastercam but it is real slow and it doesn't like big STL's either."

Kevin C.

 

"Start with new file in X2. Go to Xform | Xform STL and select your file. When it opens up, it will either be shaded or unshaded (depending on your shading settings). If it is still unshaded, you can press Alt + S and that will shade the model. If you want software to work with the STL models directly, look into Magics RP. This is awesome software and works with STL files. It has great tools to fix and reduce the number of triangles on a model. It also has a whole set of features for anyone who has a 3D printer and needs to output a file for it. You can generate support pieces, nest multiple STL models together for a single build, and even separate large models into smaller inter-locking pieces so you can glue them together. It is the best tool I have found for working with STL models..."

Colin Gilchrist §

 

"One way to get a solid from an STL file is to use Verisurf Reverse. This Mastercam add-on has tools to create surface models from STL files. A surface model can be automatically converted into to a Solid if you have the Mastercam Solids option. If you send me a STL file of your part I can show you how this works."

Ernie, from verisurf.

 

[ 07-27-2009, 09:14 PM: Message edited by: MotorCityMinion ]

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

quote:

---

What am I doing wrong here? I can't get a Shaded model to appear. Am I only going to see the saved STL while in verify? (Version X, not X2, x3, x4)

---

In X3 or X4 before you Open the STL file, select the file and before opening use the Option button and change the setting from read Lines to Mesh, know when you open it you can shade it.

If it’s a big STL file then load Verisurf Reverse. After loading Verisurf Reverse, you Open an STL file it will come in as a Mesh in the Reverse opt tree and has different display settings. This part is free and it handles large STL files and has a very fast display.

 

Ernie

[MotorCityMinion]

Free for version X, (not X2, X3, x4)? Too cool. I'll head over to the Verisurf site shortly.

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

Opps sorry, I didn’t catch the " NOT X2, X3, x4"

 

The Free STL mesh viewer in Mastercam is for version X3 and x4.

 

I think your SOL with X

 

Ernie

[MotorCityMinion]

How about the beers? I gotta buy those too, because the difference is measurable.

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

That right , the beers on me too.

 

Ernie