Jump to content
Private Messaging is activated - check "How to" on how to disable it ×

Exporting .stl to .step


---
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hey everyone - engineering team needs a .stl file converted to .step file and asked for my help. I can export to .jt but they said that wasn't sufficient. 

How can I export .stl file to a .step file?

 

Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to view this quote.

Thanks for the solution but unfortunately due to NDAs we cannot upload data to third party

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

if you are using Inspect, there is an app called "Autosurfacing" in the software store available or you could have a look at Zeiss Reverse Engineering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Chris,

if you have (or could dreate 100% meshes with no holes, you could use "autosurfacing" und could create very simple and fast STEP file.

If your scans have (big) holes, you can use the free software "free cad". You could convert file. But it is very slow and the STEP files are very big. So, my collegues could not open Step file with more than 50.000 edges. Somitimes they are over 300MB, it´s to big vor CATIA.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I needed to do this exact thing yesterday and I couldn't come up with a satisfactory result by exporting the file as a *.step through solidworks. Thankfully, the part was very simple so it was easy enough to get a *.step model made. Maybe I missed something, but what is the best way to do this through solidworks?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The first question to ask is: Is is the engineering team aware of the fundamental differences between an STL and a STEP file?

If yes, the above mentioned solutions will probably do, but I have often experienced a tremendous lack of knowledge in that area.

People often expect to get a model they can use seamlessly for further design purposes, but this is not possible with an autosurfaced model. You can load it, but the surfaces generated usually make no functional sense. Creating a really usable model is a manual process performed in a reverse engineering software or CAD module.

Edited
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello DWC. I'm not from ZEISS, but I'll give you an answer.
Yes, that's true. Have you ever analyzed your scans in more detail? What happens when you compare an actual plane in Gauss, Chebbyshev with the scan. Or when you calculate a hole in Gauss, MICI, MCCI or Chebbyshev?
Especially with plastic parts, there are no clear answers as to what is closest to the real component. Because distortion, etc. are quite typical here. A plane in the scan is never as flat as that in a CAD. A plane in the scan consists of many small triangles. In CAD you usually have a patch for the plane.
That's why you actually have to redesign everything when reverse engineering. If you were to make a spirit mold directly from the scan of a distorted plastic part, you would end up with even more bent parts.
You can find the prices for autosourcing in the Quality Suite app store.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to view this quote.

I tried the website and had it converted to a waterproof scan. The result was absolutely unusable. Unfortunately, there were a lot of small areas with rotated mesh surfaces overlapping. And there were a lot of holes in it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This website has an illustrated description of the differences between autosurfaced and manually reverse engineered models. There's even a 3D demonstration where you can rotate an example model and switch between the different types:

https://algona.de/3d-scanner-fuer-reverse-engineering/

 

Maybe AI will free us from the hassle of manual RE work some day - or take over the world 😲

 

 

Edited
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to view this quote.

Well it should work for normal models - i'm guessing that for measured meshes which needs correction this is not the best choice, nor SolidWorks.

Using SW importing stl just to make model by creating by hand close to stl data.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...