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joareikuh  
#1 Posted : Thursday, January 23, 2020 5:36:24 AM(UTC)
joareikuh

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I am using ViaCAD 2D/3D Vers.10 on a Macbook for creating and processing objects for 3D-printing.

But I have a problem to convert (change object type) an imported mesh to a volume because of the limitation to 3000 facets.

So now I am looking for a way to convert the mesh file before I use it in ViaCAD. But for that I need a converting software from STL(mesh) to vc3 (ViaCAD) without limitations in facets.

Have anyone an idea? My searching was unsuccessful by now

Thanks
Jo
UGMENTALCASE  
#2 Posted : Friday, January 24, 2020 12:56:56 AM(UTC)
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If the mesh is completely nicely built and no errors instep will convert stl to stp. By nice I mean no errors what so ever. Even if you think it's a nice mesh instep will find a problem.

So you have powerpack which will convert a mesh to standard shapes (in viacad) which is OK but a bit naff.

I use cotangent and remesh in it. Cotangent will remesh almost anything into a nice clean mesh. Free at the moment as well. So maybe remesh in this and try instep works good for me.

Obviously holes and such will be facetted so you can always fill them in and redo then once converted.

Cheers
murray  
#3 Posted : Friday, January 24, 2020 7:15:58 PM(UTC)
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If you want to do CAD-like operations on mesh models, shelling or thickening, filleting and blending only work properly in very narrow circumstances even if your model's converted to a solid. Do you want to do CAD-type work on mesh models, like adding screw posts or ribs or flanges? TurboCAD, even the lower-end deluxe version, does that very well, performing booleans between mesh objects as if they're solids, and it is a proper parametric modeller for mesh objects, so has the tools to size and position things properly. I've used TurboCAD for many years and I've developed a methodology in it to shell meshes without having to convert them into solids. Alternatively, you might import your mesh into VC, build features like those posts or ribs as mesh objects using the model as reference, then export all of those objects together and use a mesh program like MeshMixer to boolean them together.

Chris, thanks for the headsup to those apps, they're interesting.

Edited by user Friday, January 24, 2020 9:56:36 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

UGMENTALCASE  
#4 Posted : Saturday, January 25, 2020 2:33:30 AM(UTC)
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Yeah Cotangent is pretty good. It's geared for printing but I found it when I needed to make my scanned meshes more uniform. Works a treat! Helps with following processes as well when its nice and clean
joareikuh  
#5 Posted : Saturday, January 25, 2020 9:53:24 AM(UTC)
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Thanks for your answers by now. I'll check the suggestions to find out what the 's the best way for me.

BTW: Is the limitation to 3000 facets not existent in power pack ???
joareikuh  
#6 Posted : Saturday, January 25, 2020 10:07:44 AM(UTC)
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InStep is not a possible solution because it's only running on windows systems. I'm working on a mac computer (as I stated above).
UGMENTALCASE  
#7 Posted : Saturday, January 25, 2020 10:36:25 AM(UTC)
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Thought parallels gave mac users access to Windows? If you want to send me an example file or post it here I'll try power pack mesh to analytical for you see if it's worth while upgrade.

The limitation is still there with power pack. Apparently it never used to be a problem but the converted part was impossible to work with
joareikuh  
#8 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 4:10:23 AM(UTC)
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Ok - let me look for a sty-file from me portfolio to post it. (Suggest i'll find out how ...)

What do you mean when you say: "But the converted part was impossible to work with"?

UGMENTALCASE  
#9 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 4:17:40 AM(UTC)
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I heard it was just a massive file and super slow to do anything with so they put a restriction on it of 3000 facets.

Yeah there is an attach radio button on the reply form.

Cheers
joareikuh  
#10 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 4:23:43 AM(UTC)
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ok
File Attachment(s):
Kameraadapter_1_25Zoll_auf_Canon_EF Kopie.slt (334kb) downloaded 5 time(s).

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joareikuh  
#11 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 4:26:19 AM(UTC)
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I changed the suffix to slt because styl is not allowed to upload. So please change the suffix back to stl
UGMENTALCASE  
#12 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 4:40:10 AM(UTC)
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It's not letting me change the extension on that one without me messing with my defaults. Might be able to try it with a txt extension?
joareikuh  
#13 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 9:22:51 AM(UTC)
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Sure - here comes the "txt" version
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UGMENTALCASE  
#14 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 11:55:28 AM(UTC)
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INSTEP VERSION
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INSTEP VERSION.slt (2,481kb) downloaded 5 time(s).

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UGMENTALCASE  
#15 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 11:56:29 AM(UTC)
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SHARK POWER PACK VERSION

Can't upload the bloody thing. Crappy restriction that restricts a file that is no where near the file limit!
I'll keep trying, it's essentially the same.
In shark you get a dialog as attached

Edited by user Tuesday, January 28, 2020 11:59:51 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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UGMENTALCASE  
#16 Posted : Tuesday, January 28, 2020 12:03:32 PM(UTC)
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..
joareikuh  
#17 Posted : Thursday, January 30, 2020 10:02:42 AM(UTC)
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The instep-Version works perfect for me - but unfortunately I don't have access to a Windows-System.

But I understood that the transfer also works in ViaCAD(Powerpack). Can you edit the transformed object (e.g. volume operations like divide or join) ?

. . . and save it as an ViaCad volume object (vc3 format) ??


murray  
#18 Posted : Friday, January 31, 2020 5:43:23 AM(UTC)
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PowerPack doesn't do simple conversions like that. It can recognise groups of facets that compose analytical surfaces: cylinders, revolved profiles, ellipsoids and planes, replace the faces with those analytics, and reduce facet counts like that. The instep conversion that Chris has done has consolidated the coplanar facets into faces, but not the others. I have a couple of old PCs at home that have ViaCAD 2d3D and VCP V6 and V7, and Shark V7, and I don't remember them having the 3K limit. The procedure to turn a manifold mesh into a solid was to convert the mesh into faces and then stitch the faces. These are 32-bit apps and the process was s-l-o-o-o-w, the more faces the slower, and once you've done that, solid booleans are slower again.
murray  
#19 Posted : Friday, January 31, 2020 11:50:52 PM(UTC)
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Mac paints you into a corner that limits the choice of software for this, try open-source FreeCAD, available for PC, Mac and Linux. Import a mesh object into FreeCAD, highlight it in the ComboBox panel and, in the Part menu in the Part Workbench (different UIs for different jobs), select "make shape from mesh". It asks you for a tolerance, default .010 works well enough, your KameraAdapter took 10 seconds or so on a very humble 1.6 GHz Celeron laptop to convert to a "shape", then highlight the new shape and again in the Part menu, nominate "create solid from shape". Highlight the Solid in the ComboBox and File|Export to .stp or .step, CAD solid format parts that VC will import.
thanks 2 users thanked murray for this useful post.
GARLIC on 2/1/2020(UTC), joareikuh on 2/3/2020(UTC)
UGMENTALCASE  
#20 Posted : Sunday, February 2, 2020 10:28:55 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: joareikuh Go to Quoted Post
The instep-Version works perfect for me - but unfortunately I don't have access to a Windows-System.

But I understood that the transfer also works in ViaCAD(Powerpack). Can you edit the transformed object (e.g. volume operations like divide or join) ?

. . . and save it as an ViaCad volume object (vc3 format) ??




https://www.dropbox.com/...gd0gkxsz/Viacad.vcp?dl=0

Still can't upload it. This is the powerpack version. Sorry about the delay
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