Hello all,
I am doing quite a lot of work with .stl files recently. I basically am taking an original model and building some basic shapes off of it. Each of these shapes has slightly different requirements but always end up becoming an .stl. The software people then use these .stl files to run our software.
Are there any other options when creating .stl files other than the little dialog box that pops up? Perhaps some more advanced options that can be turned on?
Is it possible to generate a .stl that uses different cord heights on different surfaces? I ask this because on some of the models one surface should be very accurate but the others can be much less accurate. I am trying to keep the number of triangles down while still keeping the accuracy of our calculations. We need a boundary area to avoid errors, but this area is not used for accuracy. I typically do this by keeping this boundary area flat and square. This way it only needs a few triangles. However, on this new model I can not create a smooth boundary that is flat. So I was thinking if it is possible to set the cord height for the surface that I care about at something like 0.01 and the other surfaces could be 0.5 or something along these lines.
finally I typically create groups of features that can be suppressed for each of these shapes in the original model. If I were able to keep the naming convention the same, could I make a macro that exported each group as an .stl with the same origin. Basically, it would save as a .stl, set the origin, export the first group with the others suppressed, then repeat down the line. I already create a new origin with the same name in each model, and groups that follow a naming convention. This would let me export all of them as a set.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. If my description was not clear I can post some pictures.
Josh
I am doing quite a lot of work with .stl files recently. I basically am taking an original model and building some basic shapes off of it. Each of these shapes has slightly different requirements but always end up becoming an .stl. The software people then use these .stl files to run our software.
Are there any other options when creating .stl files other than the little dialog box that pops up? Perhaps some more advanced options that can be turned on?
Is it possible to generate a .stl that uses different cord heights on different surfaces? I ask this because on some of the models one surface should be very accurate but the others can be much less accurate. I am trying to keep the number of triangles down while still keeping the accuracy of our calculations. We need a boundary area to avoid errors, but this area is not used for accuracy. I typically do this by keeping this boundary area flat and square. This way it only needs a few triangles. However, on this new model I can not create a smooth boundary that is flat. So I was thinking if it is possible to set the cord height for the surface that I care about at something like 0.01 and the other surfaces could be 0.5 or something along these lines.
finally I typically create groups of features that can be suppressed for each of these shapes in the original model. If I were able to keep the naming convention the same, could I make a macro that exported each group as an .stl with the same origin. Basically, it would save as a .stl, set the origin, export the first group with the others suppressed, then repeat down the line. I already create a new origin with the same name in each model, and groups that follow a naming convention. This would let me export all of them as a set.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. If my description was not clear I can post some pictures.
Josh
