Did an stl to stp in Alibre 2.5MB to 43MB PRT file (Alibre STP)
saved from Alibre to IGS 137MB
(MOI couldn't open Step Sat files or they took ages)
opened in MOI and saved as a 3DM 287MB
It's a messy subject matter area of work IMO but the ability of MOI to draw inside the scan makes it far more practical
I think my earlier work to get the 20MB file involved mesh reduction in MESHLAB and faffing about with that
MESHLAB is a good program, like MOI it's tightly written and very efficient
edit: I just remembered, if you can get the STL under 1MB then life gets a lot easier.
Hi Ado, I'm not surprised there are problems. The MOI Sub-d importer is not intended to be used on high density scan data with hundreds of thousands of triangles. It's designed to process a sub-d control cage made with a few thousand quad faces.
There's a way to convert STL files to STEP files easily and on the cheap, but the more complex the file, the bigger the STEP file will be, because it'll be made up of loads of triangles.
So my advice is to use apps like MeshLab, which has a few tools for this kind of thing to reduce mesh complexty, and then bring the file into Blender to further reduce the complexity of the STL mesh.
Blender also has some tools for working with meshes and cutting down the polygon count a bit, like the modifier "Decimate" with this you can reduce the size of the STEP.
Here's how to convert STL models to STEP for free:
Import the into FreeCAD and use FreeCAD's internal procedures to convert the model to a CAD part, under the workbench Part and use the command "Shape from Part"
After that, save the model as a STEP file: that's the quickest way.
This way you'll be able to work in Moi3D using snaps and the geometry from the scanned model, but keep in mind that STL models are meant for 3D printing and usually have a ton of triangles, so the exported STEP file will be really heavy to handle.
Of course there are other methods too, but it all comes down to your experience with both the software and modeling itself.
Converting an STL file to STEP format with FreeCAD sometimes took a while.
So my advice is to use mesh modeling apps like Blender and try to make some elements with SubD, then export the model as OBJ, and then convert it in Moi3D using the SubD command.
But there are many methods, and skills you pick up over time.
Last thing; with FreeCAD, you can import STL models and use them as a reference to create the CAD model directly with its built-in tools.
But as I said, it requires experience and it's not the easiest CAD program to use.
Still, it's useful to have it, because sometimes you run into these issues with Moi3D not supporting meshes.
Below in the image you can see an STL file from a laser scan converted using the method I suggested.
Cheers
STL decimated in Blender
STL exported from Blender and converted with FreeCAD into a part CAD
re:
> This way you'll be able to work in Moi3D using snaps and the geometry from the scanned
> model, but keep in mind that STL models are meant for 3D printing and usually have a ton
> of triangles, so the exported STEP file will be really heavy to handle.
There are more problems with this method than just getting really heavy.
It's just fundamentally not the type of data that CAD programs are designed to work with.
No spheres, cylinders, or actual curved objects of any type, just a big pile of trimmed planes.
Hi Michael, I must have misunderstood what the goal of importing an STL file was, since in the first message was mentioned reverse engineering programs, something that actually comes up in professional work, because laser scan data are point clouds that get turned into polygonal 3D files.
In fact, many professional CAD packages let you import mesh files and then reconstruct them using tools that allow you to build on top of the references.
I often work with this kind of data format myself, STL files, and then do the reconstruction file over 3GB and some files I'm working on are over 2GB STL, and I had to reduce them because the full model is over 50GB of RAW data.
So that’s why I suggested this approach, considering that Moi3D doesn’t have a way to import STL files, except for some JavaScript scripts, and I figured that having a STEP file, even if polygonal, could let you do the reconstruction right inside Moi3D's tools.
Hi ado1, could you share that 3D file? That way I can take a better look and maybe I can get you a usable model for your purpose.
Although at this point I have to admit I might not have understood what you’re aiming for by having an STL model imported into SubD, which isn’t possible because of the triangles.
However, if your goal is to have a SubD model in Moi3D, the best thing you can do is re-topologize using mesh modeling applications like Blender, or buy an add-on for Blender, “Quad Remesher”, which costs just over 100 dollars and does an excellent quad-topology reconstruction of 3D meshes, and that lets you import it into Moi3D.
There are issues using those kinds of models directly, though, because Moi3D can’t recognize the sharp edges of subdivision surfaces, so you could still use Blender and other add-ons that let you export the models to IGES or STEP, which take the sharp edges in SubD models into account.
For example this model below was done manually by me yesterday for a beginner user, and I "retopologized" the model with Blender from a file STL of a laser scan.
Hey, I downloaded the STL file and, using Blender with an add-on called “QRemeshify”, I converted it into a quad topology mesh.
Then I exported the model as OBJ and imported it into Moi3D using the SubD command.
I’m attaching the OBJ file below, so you have a model in Moi3D to work on that’s lighter than an STL file.
You can also find QRemeshify on GitHub, but maybe from this link (https://ksami.gumroad.com/l/QRemeshify) you get a version that works with the libraries as well.
However, if you’re dealing with this kind of file, you might want to consider Quad Remesher, which I already mentioned in my previous comment, because it produces a much better remesh.
> So that’s why I suggested this approach, considering that Moi3D doesn’t have a way to import
> STL files, except for some JavaScript scripts, and I figured that having a STEP file, even
> if polygonal, could let you do the reconstruction right inside Moi3D's tools.
This is true, but the reconstruction process has a very high learning curve and is better done with tools that are specifically focused on that type of task which MOI is not.
The OP asked:
quote:
scannes items can be exported as stl and obj...so import the obj ...I ll be fine?
The simple answer is "nope, you cannot just open up scan data into MOI and proceed like it was an object you modeled."
Hi Matadem, thanks but it's nothing special, it's a model I made for a beginner user as a starting point to figure out how to do certain things.
I only just realized, after Michael's last reply, that the original message was yours, however Michael answered you about Moi3D.
Anyway, what Geomagic Design does can be done in different ways with Blender too, since it has various mesh modeling tools and some add-ons, but it's not as straightforward as Geomagic Design. Still, it's got a lot of modifiers and, with some experience, it's just as good as certain dedicated apps, but you have to know how to use it and it gets tricky for some things.
I'm attaching an image below of something I worked on in the past: a section of a ship's hull that I reconstructed to create the technical drawings that had been lost over time.
hull section with Blender's Nurbs surfaces and some other add-on for modelling with CAD data
You're right, I didn't realize they were two different people, I read the first message carelessly and didn't get that they were two separate persons.
So yeah, you're correct. I kept replying to the user "ado1", thinking he'd started the thread, but it was actually "Matadem", so my replies were all about the follow-up.
Anyway, I didn't know you could get sharp edges with FBX when importing subdivision surfaces, that's really good to know.
By the way, those reverse engineering apps don't do anything special; with a bit of experience you can manage with plenty of programs, like Moi3D and FreeCAD, which has a lot of tools for that. Even with Blender lately there are many tools that help with this, and now you can even create NURBS models directly in Blender, that helped me a ton when working on some scanned parts.
That AI approach wins hands down if the file produced is practical and useable
Incomplete scans were always a problem bottleneck in the 3D process
It does the fiddly bits, squaring everything up in 3 dimensions, getting the teeth on the cog right, probably does the pitch diameter/MOD stuff from the raw data
squares up the different holes properly
Amazing
(btw you're all sacked. The robot has been given your job)
On a more serious note if you take the original 100% STL and open it in Meshlab
Then export the mesh to PLY
Then open it in this instant meshes
scan5.jpg
