Hi Michael T - the problem seems to be that the files written from Alibre are stored as centimeter units in the file. Maybe there is some export option in Alibre that controls what units are used to export the file separate from the units currently used in modeling?

When I open your SAT file in MoI, you can see that it is read in centimeters, the units are displayed in the coordinate controls in the bottom toolbar here:



So if you want to use millimeters as your units instead of centimeters, after loading the SAT file go to Options > General > Unit system, and change the Unit system option there to say "Unit system: Millimeters". You'll also want the checkbox for "Scale on unit system change" under the Unit options (the button right next to the units dropdown, the dialog that Ralf was showing above) to be enabled so that your model scales to the same proportions in mm when you switch the units. Also you'll probably want that second option "Scale when importing different units" to also be enabled, that will make the Import command scale imported geometry to maintain its physical unit size.

For the STEP format import, MoI did not seem to be able to read the units setting from the file at all in that case, I'll need to examine that to see why. So after reading in the STEP file the units in MoI are set to "No unit system". To fix this up you will need to set the units twice in a row - first change it from "No unit system" to centimeters. This will not scale the model but it will get your unit system to centimeters to match what was in the file. Then set the units a second time to mm and then the switch from cm to mm will scale your object up and you'll have what you need.

So for either case, you just need to go to the Unit system option in MoI and set it (twice for the STEP file first to cm and then to mm) and that should solve the problem. Please let me know if that does not solve the issue for you.


You may want to check in the Alibre export options though to see if there is some option that is set that is making it export files using centimeters as the units in the exported file.


- Michael