STL to Solid with NX9

[Rhadamanthys76]

Hi all

I just joined this forum in the hope that the gurus over here might be able to help me out
I need to convert mesh file (STL format) to a solid
At work I have access to NX9 and could use the suite to carry out this conversion. The only problems is I have no NX9 skills

Can someone please explain to me how to convert an STL to a solid using NX9? I've gotten as far as importing the STL into NX. It lets me view and manipulate the model, but where do I go from there?

Since I dont have NX skills, I'd prefer if there are automated tools that can do the conversion
If manual work is required, please tell me the commands and sequence of commands that need to be used for this and I can look up the help files and online videos and I'll figure out how

Thanking everyone in advance

 

[KhimaniMohiki]

Its pretty much the same procedure as any other CAD software, you 'fit' surfaces and geometric shapes (cylinders, cones, planes etc) to regions in the STL geometry, once you have a closed volume you can then sew into a solid. So depening on your geometry it can be a very lengthy process, can you upload an image of your STL geometry?

Khimani Mohiki
Design Engineer - Aston Martin
NX8.5

 

[PDW]

First of all I would suggest to do a search in this form, this questions has come up a few times, and some specific solutions can be found on your question. Search for STL NX, and you wil have a lot of threads guiding you.

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=354617

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=297089

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=320737

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=238143

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=214186

...

As being stated in these thread's you can create surfaces with Rapid Surface (TIP: use Command Finder)

Another way is, to make use of Rhino software, it can import your stl and export to STEP.

Kind regards,

 

[Toost]

Rhino can , to my limited knowledge, only convert the STL facets into surfaces. - The result will not be smooth if that is expected. ( Or ?)
Also, the result will contain "millions" of surfaces.

Regards,
Tomas

 

[PDW]

There are plug-ins for Rhino, which could do the job:

http://www.resurf3d.com/products.htm

Haven't used it myself, but a colleague, this with mixed results...