How to reduce the resolution(no. of facets/faces) in a mesh

[yellowshark 153]

Hi I want to reduce the resolution of an object but having looked at various software ,including Meshmixer and Meshlab, I cannot find away to do this. Maybe the software packages have a particular command/function that I am not recognising.

What am I trying to achieve? In Solidworks I want to extrude a flat plane to an organic surface and then remove it so that the flat plane now has the inverted organic surface. The organic object I am using has about 90,000 faces and the process is taking too long for testing. So I want to reduce the number of surfaces, significantly, on the organic object. The resultant quality of the organic object is not really of any concern for the testing.

What I want to see is that the process I am using will "mould" a plane to an organic surface well enough for my purposes.

 

[gr5 2,192]

Detailed instructions here:

http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/polygon_reduction_with_meshlab

 

 

[3dcase 37]

Perhaps I don't understand your question.

But I am 99,9% sure, that a professional CAD system like Solidworks, gives you a choice or options on how to calculate your STL

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

If you want something more "visual", then in MeshMixer:

- import your mesh

- press W to activate wireframe view, so that you can see the faces

- select Sculpt

- Select Brushes > Reduce

- "Paint" on the model

- Play with Properties, mainly Size and Strength to adjust the effect

- Press Ctrl+Z to undo the change you don't like

 

[yellowshark 153]

Thanks guys, I tried both Meshlab and Meshmixer with your instructions and they worked fine. LOL how on earth did I miss Quadric edge collapse decimation, so self-explanatory. As for Meshmixer, “blah blah brush reduce” does not appear in their “user manual”. Both these packages are I think very powerful/useful but for someone like me, with no background/training in meshes, they just seem to be totally non-accessible without any decent documentation. No idea how you guys have become so knowledgeable! Still now I know how to use one function J

Hi 3Dcase yes I think you probably misunderstood my question. I am not trying to create an stl; I have a step file imported into Solidworks which has too many faces (88,000+) and I wanted to reduce the number, say to 5000 or below. For the testing I wanted to do, my Solidworks environment is too slow with any object with so many faces.

 

[gr5 2,192]

No idea how you guys have become so knowledgeable!

 

It's "the google".

Google knows everything. I have had to reduce qty of faces (had over 10 million on this crazy thingiverse scanned image) and so I had to google around and it worked so well I saved the link in my "ultimaker tips" file.