Transform Sub-Objects?

[mike-truly 3]

Cura 3.1

 

I'm pretty sure this is not possible but I thought I'd check.

 

When you have a single STL (which is made up of 2 sub-objects) on the print bed in Cura... is there any way of selecting just one of the sub-objects and transforming that sub-object around the bed independent of the other sub-object?

 

(Not sure if this would defy the laws of the STL format or something).

 

In my 3D app, it would be convenient to select 10 objects and save them into a single STL.  Then I could load the STL in Cura then select the individual sub-objects and shuffle them around the print bed to then have them all be printed at once.  As it is now, I must save the 10 objects individually to 10 different STLs (which involves typing/naming all the STL files, etc.) and load them all into Cura before I can shuffle them around.

 

Just thought I'd check.

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

 

 

Edited January 27, 2018 by mike-truly

[ahoeben 1,802]

The STL format does not support multiple separate meshes; everything is loaded as a "connected" mesh. Other file formats do support multiple meshes, eg 3mf.

[mike-truly 3]

Thanks very much for this info.

 

That's what I thought.  I will look into 3mf as well.

 

Thanks again.

 

Mike

 

[ahoeben 1,802]

Note that the old Cura (15.04 and before) had a function to "break apart" models, but this has not yet been ported over to Cura. It has been on my list of things to contribute for a while now, but so many things to do, so little time...

[mike-truly 3]

Thanks for the info... interesting.  I would certainly vote for seeing that back in the current version!

 

From an automation standpoint (which was really why I was asking about this originally), I have found that changing to OBJs in my 3D app (instead of STLs) allows the use of some scripts to automate the saving/naming of multiple selected objects.  So basically, select 10 objects, click 3 buttons and 10 OBJ files appear.  Now drag all 10 into Cura and they can be shuffled around the print bed quickly.  So this may be a current workaround for me.

 

Thanks again.

 

Mike