I have a project where my input will be scanned data. I am assuming that this will come in the guise of an STL file.
Do you already know how the scan is going to be done? Is it already a safe assumption that you will get an STL file as a result?
Scanned data can be as simple as a list of 3d (x,y,z) coordinates listed in a text file, that you would import in Meshlab as a points cloud for example, and generate the mesh from this.
Inventor has a plugin to convert stls to elements that you can use - is there one out there for solidworks?
If I understand correctly you have a STL file and you want to import it in SW in such a way that it recognizes features.
It should do that with the detect features function, but I havn't gotten it to work yet.
If you can post your file I can have a look. I also use solidworks and wanted to edit some STL files in the near future too
I use http://www.solveering.com/instep.htm to do the conversion and output a stp file.
It still does not give feature extraction so probably no better than your SW import, but the model can have new features added and subtracted. (I use Geomagic).
Thanks for the comments guys. To answer the questions.
3Dmaker4U/Woofy: I now have a .obj file and .ply file from Meshmixer and a .stp file from InStep, all of which I will import into SW tomorrow and let you know the results.
Kolia: The subject matter is orthoses, i.e. medical in-soles to re-align the foot into proper posture. One method to get these is for the foot to be scanned and input to specialised medical modelling software which provides the design of the in-sole. I received a . stl file from this software to 3D print but we wanted to make some modifications to it first. On learning that importing a .stl file into SW was useless we just redrew it in SW from scratch, took about 20 minutes but it would not have been highly accurate as we had no dimensions and the work I think would not allow for spending a lot of 3D design time for each file. I have no idea but could check I guess to see if the file was a mesh or a point cloud.
The 2nd method and maybe the more likely is for us to receive the scan of the foot. I am awaiting confirmation but at the moment I am assuming also that the scan will be a .stl file; it may well be done with an Xbox (although iPhone software has also been mentioned). This may be a game changer – it came up today after I made my post. A foot is organic and maybe trying to use SW as the method may not be a good choice but at this point that is where our skills are.
Will Meshmixer let me design an in-sole that will “interface” to the foot? I guess I am assuming that would be difficult.
Jameshs:. Well yes SW has a tool known as ScanTo3D which looking at the documentation I suspect is really what would suite us best. But unfortunately it is only available in the Premium edition which would need us to upgrade for probably about 2,000-2,500 gbp which is just not viable at the moment.
Titus: ah the “detect feature” is not something I am aware of. We only have the basic version so maybe it is not there, I will check tomorrow. If you pm me your email address I will happily send you an STL file
Will Meshmixer let me design an in-sole that will “interface” to the foot? I guess I am assuming that would be difficult.
Yes. Not at all. Create/import the 'shoe' or just the raw sole, then import the foot, position (rotate/translate), you may need to scale the shoe/sole, and finally select both and make a Boolean difference (order of selection counts). That's all.
Rhino -> MeshToNurbs command -> save as whatever format you want.
If your mesh was manifold, it will turn into a fairly clean nurbs surface, though it will probably be a large file because each mesh face will be a nurbs plane. If your mesh was manifold and closed, it will be a nurbs solid. Rhino warns if you are using a mesh larger than 20000 faces. I have gone larger, and it works, but for many things, a mesh reduced to around 20000 faces is more than adequate anyway.
Hi 3dmaker4u, thanks for that. I cannot quite get my head around it but am I right in assuming that the Boolean difference is what moulds the shoe/sole to the contours of the foot?
As soon as I get a scan of a foot I will be able to try it 
Thanks Nick, ah Nurbs, a term I have seen before. Is that an internal Rhino name for a solid/surface model, or is it a generic name for something different? So far I have only worked with STL files exported from Solidworks (apart from a few downloads) and they are always manifold and work 100%. Do you know if STL files from scanning are likely to be more problematical?
Hi all, sorry I have off line for a few days. Well I had some good success at the weekend. Importing the OBJ and PLY files into SW did not work, I got some sort of file error; I need to go back I guess and try to ascertain why that was. But I got 100% success using InStep which is just a great result for me so thanks for the recommendation.
Using the free version, the model had less than 3000 facets, I just imported the STL file and exported the STP file. First run gave me a result out of scale but that was because the STL was using mm and the InStep units configuration was set to inches. A quick change and the 2nd result was perfect with all dimensions spot on, OK a couple were 1/10,000 mm out.
The result is so important for me that I am definitely going to buy one of the paid for versions from the guys. I need to read up on the menu of additional tools to try and judge what would be useful and what would not.
Rhino looks very good too but having invested in SW I cannot justify another 1,000eu which for me would just be file conversion.
Thanks for all your help guys – it is good that we know about a lot more than just Ultimaker J
Hi 3dmaker4u, thanks for that. I cannot quite get my head around it but am I right in assuming that the Boolean difference is what moulds the shoe/sole to the contours of the foot?
As soon as I get a scan of a foot I will be able to try it
If you don't have the scan, than you have the option to "sculpt" the bare sole. You need anyway some information about the foot, like a mold or even pictures. I don't know the current practices, but I would expect most probably a mold to be used. This could be easily used to determine a "point cloud" with repeated measurements following a grid. This could be used to generate a rough foot model that could be further sculpted. While may sound very rudimentary, could be actually very cheap and fast
My good friend google found me this forum,
I am busy to learn working with my 3d scanning and it is all going well. I have made my first scans and fusions. For editing my fusions i work with Meshlab.
What i want is to convert the stl files into a stp file and open it in Solidworks to modify the part to create a new product. Mostly it is about carparts.
Is there anybody here with experience.
Unfortunaly the scanto3d add-in is not working in solidworks :-(
Thanks in advance.
OK, well you can use the free version of InStep to import an stl file and export an stp file - see solveneering.com. BUT you are limited on what you can do with it in Solidworks as far as I remember. You can extrude it but I do not think you can edit features. Worth you having a look at no cost. Having said that it may well depend on the quality of the software creating the stl file and indeed the InStep software, but moving between file formats and software can loose design intelligence. Best test is probably to export an stl file from Solidworks, run it through InStep and import the stp file from InStep
...btw I assume you realise that scanto3d is only available in the Premium version; unless that changed with the 2015 release
Thank you Yellowshark,
I am running the 2014 version, but the scanto3d buttons are greyed out.
Thanks for your advice, i was not aware of quality problems when you are moving between software, good to know!
What i want to do is scan an object (a spoiler for example) and make a fin or more curves, after that we test it, modify again and produce it. So most of the scanned objects are big, i have an upright made about 1062446 faces....
About the money: quality above all ;-)
Ok the free version of InStep is limited to 3000 faces. I am happy to take your much larger file and try it as I have the Basic version which does not have that limitation - although g*d knows how long a million+ faces will take to process. I will message you an email address and if you send me the file I will try converting it to stp and mail it back to you. Plases note that the quality problems can occur; they are not guaranteed to occur. EG I would not expect a Solidworks stp file going to an Autodesk user to have problems (no guarantee though
Sorry guys, but I'm pretty sure that the tool you're hoping for isn't really practical - in my opinion.
STL is the compiled/rendered form of the 3D model, similar to how object code is the compiled form of a source code, or a paperback is the rendered form of a novel. Going from STL back to a fully operational 3D model is a bit like trying to scan a book and reproduce the original word processor document. It may seem like it worked but in fact it's just a static image, you can't do much with it except render it again, perhaps at a different scale.
Going from STL to a working model in any intelligent sense would require something equivalent to Optical Character Recognition for 3D images... and just like OCR, there would probably be a lot of manual fixing involved.
I'm willing to bet that the SolidWorks "recognize features" feature only works when Solidworks produced the STL, i.e. if it can assume that everything started off as a SolidWorks feature. Perhaps relying on "hints" embedded as comments in the STL.
I am sure you are right Don, STL was created specifically for additive manufacturing way back and the idea of re-interpreting the file back to a 3D model with all its attributes and design intelligence is improbable. It worked fine for us as all we needed to do was to match another part to the contours of the imported stp file, we did not need to modify it. What I cannot remember is if we were able to pick up the dimensions from the imported file, which could be very useful depending on what is required.
For building a reverse engineering workflow, we've been having good results with the solidworks plugin XTract3D.
https://www.polyga.com/XTract3d/?ref=13&campaign=ML
It sounds like you have a background in solidworks, this would at least let you continue to leverage those skills. I don't know how dense your foot scans are, but the XTract3D plugin is able to handle much heavier 3d scan datasets than solidworks can without it, and you can actually interact with that data while drawing curves.
There's a reverse engineering tutorial on their site that covers what it can handle:
It's long and there are shorter videos on their site, but the one below is my favorite. Learned a lot.
It's possible but a lot of work, and a lot of running around. I would guess and say you'd for sure experience some file degradation. The issue is that its a completely different file type. Again there are a few programs that will do it (especially if you're just looking for some basic function like poking a hole in it), but probably won't work the way you'd expect it to. even crossing solid files into other solid modelling programs is touchy let alone an STL. It would be easier to get the native file if you have them, or use the obj or stl as a base to remodel it in a new program like Alias, Solidworks, Mudbox, Zbrush etc. Most likely it will take a bit longer, but will be less of a headache and will produce better results.
You actually can open an stl as a solid in Solidworks. Go to file - open, change the file type to stl, click options, and change import as to solid body.
Edit: Just realized this is a really old post. Leaving it because hopefully someone finds this useful.
Edited by pa9kYou can open an stl in Blender as well: File -> Import -> STL
Hey,
I just found this website here. I tried and it and worked well for me.
They took some days to delivery the file but its ok, its for free anyway.
Hope it can help you!
cadmeshanalytics.com
Oooold topic but this may be usefull on the day by day.
Good luck!
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3dmaker4u 0
Meshmixer has good sculpting tools, in addition to transformation, logical operations, etc. Since you'll have scan data as input, the analysis capabilities (inspector) will also be valuable.
You can find some tutorials on YT to start with.
I can agree that the interface might appear complicated, but it is not so hard at all.
Meshlab could be useful for many things, but I doubt you will like it.
I once used InStep to convert STL to STEP, but the "free" mode is limited to 3000 faces,
My advice is to give Meshmixer a try.
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