Hi Michael, I Saved a file in moi as an stl, and closed it then went back too it but cant open it again, Can I not open stl files in moi, Thank you Graham

Hi Graham, that's correct MoI will not open STL files, only export them.

That's because STL files contain a different type of object than what MoI normally works with - MoI works with smooth surfaces which is a technology called "NURBS", while STL files do not contain smooth surfaces, instead they contain a bunch of faceted triangles.

MoI can convert from a smooth NURBS surface into a triangulated mesh, but it is not very easy to go from a triangulated mesh back into a smooth NURBS surface.

It's kind of like how you can make apples into applesauce, but it is not easy to take applesauce and make it back into apples again...

- Michael

so iguess i should have saved it as somthing eles till i was fineshed the model. guess ill start over, it was just a small model any way, Thanks michael. Graham

Hi Graham, yeah definitely don't save your final "real" version as an STL - you generally want to save your main data file as a .3dm and only use .stl as a type of conversion export into some other program.

- Michael