Hi Jon,

> Are there any conversion tools you might recommend that can convert the faceted polygon mesh
> into a format that is suitable for MoI (NURBS)? I'm honestly not sure if I'm asking the question properly.

Well there are such tools but they are quite specialized - it's not like a matter of changing how things are just packaged up and formatted like many file format translations, you're instead talking here about a major change from one type of data (small facets) into a different fundamental type of data (spline CAD surfaces).

It's generally referred to as "Reverse engineering", if you do some searches on that you can find some software for it like Geomagic Wrap for example. You can also look for software for converting 3D scans into CAD models which is closely related.

But since it's a specialized field you'll probably find the software is quite expensive and will require a substantial investment in time to get good results, like in some software you manually guide the process by sketching a large patch structure on the faceted mesh.

That can be a feasible investment if it's an important part of your design process like you know you want to sculpt things in clay and then convert to a CAD model.

But for the most general case the polygon model data like you attached above is just not suitable for use as a CAD model.

- Michael