import STEP files in Cura

[esopalumpa 8]

Is there any effort in making Cura load Step/IGES files in addition to mesh based formats like STL?
Advantages would be:

- No tessellation step in job-preparation needed and no need to handle tesselated files of the CAD design.
- no unclean representations of curves, esp. holes and filets.
- the possibility to use G2, G3(Arc) and G5(Bézier cubic spline) commands to create leaner G-code.
 

OpenSource 3D modeling kernels that can load STEP/IGES-files exists.

[nallath 1,120]

We are working on importing step files, but we will initially still tessellate them.

[ahoeben 1,948]

52 minutes ago, nallath said:

initially

🤯

[esopalumpa 8]

1 hour ago, nallath said:

We are working on importing step files, but we will initially still tessellate them.

Why?!
Tesselating a model is more complex than slicing a  model, gives inferior results and causes numerous other problems.

Edited March 10, 2021 by esopalumpa

[nallath 1,120]

1 hour ago, esopalumpa said:

Why?!
Tesselating a model is more complex than slicing a  model, gives inferior results and causes numerous other problems.

Because you're wrong in that it's harder. It is much easier to do.  It's literally just a single line of code, because the libraries that we intend to use handle all of that for us. Tessalated models are always easier, this is why 3MF also uses them. Just have a look at the size of the STEP specification versus that of 3MF.

We would have to re-write a reasonable chunk of the slicing engine to handle solid models. It does have some advantages, but it's mostly on being able to recognise the special shapes and change the strategy there. The extra accuraccy that you might get from it is in the ballpark of the accuracy of the printer. There are other things that we can do that impact the accuracy more with less investment on our side.