Trevor, thanks for all the information, it turned out great. We were reviewing the manuals, but really didn't know what we were dealing with,on the STL file, so we weren't sure which way to go. It was also the first time using Art too! I can't wait to get into even more now. How do you post pictures on here, would love to show it. Wait, let me go research that one before I ask for help on it! :-) I also have a trophy that I designed for a club I belong to that we did a master for, it turned out pretty good. The trophy I designed in AutoCAD, but probably would have been just as easy or easier in ART. Again thanks for all your help, John T

Trevor thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure how much info to put in the first post. Here goes; We have a STL file we purchased from Vector Art 3d of a Celtic Cross. We want to scale it to a specific size (about 5% of original) and cut it into wood. We need to do a negative of the image so that we can make the mold to produce a piece out of cast stone. I'm not sure if the Verisurf REVERSE is the way we want to go, we are looking into an STL converter for AutoCAD (which we do our shop and mold ticket drawings on currently). If we want to bring it into Art, what is the process? I would think, purchasing the file, it would be a complete sealed surface, but not sure. We do not have a 'new art base surface- from file. We used 'import file to art base surface' once it loaded used 'create MasterCam surfaces from art base surface' that created surfaces that we could scale. Got that done, then tried to run ' toolpath active art base surface’ it attempted but it just sat there, never locked up but never finished. The STL file is right at 20MB. We don't know if we've done it right and the computer just isn't handling it, or we went astray somewhere in the process?

We have a STL file for a design we want to make a mold for. What is the process step by step, (or as close as possible)for bringing it into MasterCam X2 and getting it ready to run tool paths on. The manual says you can use them, but doesn't so how to do it, our supplier says refer to the manual! round and round we go! We've tried it a few different ways, but it just kind of sits there and locks up the computer, so we don't know if we've done something wrong, or it's a file problem. We've run a lot of pieces, bringing them in from AutoCAD, but have never used an STL file before. Do you need convert it to a MCX file in MasterCam first or bring it into ART directly. If there is something in the manual, please direct us to it, we're lost! Newbie's in ART! John T