Please excuse me if this has already been addressed, but has anyone written a script for importing STL files into MoI? I've done this in the past by opening the STL file in ViaCAD Pro, then exporting as IGES etc. then importing it into MoI. Didn't know if there was an easier solution.

Thanks,

Michael T.

See the MoI or Rhino to start topic.

Maybe best is to transform STL in obj then _ImportObj by Max Smirnov ?

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6674.68 or more prudent for have last version: http://moi.maxsm.net/media/files/

Meshlab for the transfom http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

Yep, that is the other way I do it. Import to Rhino and export OBJ.

Michael T.

Hi Michael T,

> but has anyone written a script for importing STL files into MoI?

Someone has written a script for importing ascii type (not binary type) STL files into MoI, it's on this thread here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7046.1

But please keep in mind (you probably knew this already but just in case) that STL files contain triangle mesh data, which is a different type of data than the NURBS surface data that MoI is designed to work with at modeling time. So something like a sphere for example will be set up as possibly several thousand individual planes and not just one single smooth sphere surface and CAD data structures are not designed to hold a huge number of faceted pieces like that.

- Michael

Hi Michael T.

re:
> Yep, that is the other way I do it. Import to Rhino and export OBJ.

The other way you can do it using Rhino is to import it into Rhino and then use Rhino's MeshToNurb command on it, then send the resulting NURB object into MoI either using copy/paste or by saving it out to a 3DM file.

Again though, if your STL file has a heavy number of facets in it, it won't translate well this way, NURBS models are intended to have bigger smooth surfaces in them and not hundreds of thousands of little facets.

- Michael

Thanks Michael G.

Since these other ways seem to work well, I'll try not to be so picky. :-)

Michael T.