STL to STEP or IGES

[Devaraj M]

Hi,
Can anyone tell me how to convert stl file to step or iges file.
STL file size is 85 MB. Is there any CAD tool for conversion?

 

[MacGyverS2000]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=stl+to+step

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[dgallup]

STL files are by definition tessellated so you will get a tessellated solid in a step or iges conversion. Depending on what you want to do with the geometry, it will have limited usefulness. Much better to go back to the original source and create a step or iges if you need any curved geometry.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[berkshire]

Most of the 3D parametric modelling programs like but not limited to , Solidworks or Geomagic design have an export feature where you can export a file in a different format to the one it was created in.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[SwinnyGG]

Solidworks REALLY struggles to process .stl files above a certain number of nodes- I think the limit is only like 10,000 or something, so I'd be looking elsewhere.

 

[3DDave]

Given that STL is a mesh format - the following is probably still true, at least I've come across no demonstration otherwise:

I started Okino 30 years ago with my primary focus on the study of how the human mind creates the illusion of reality and how human subjectivity has to form consensus based on incorrect and little data input. The #1 biggest issue in the entire 3D graphics world data relates to those wanting to do mesh -> solids conversions. Hence, as I talk about in my talks on this topic, it appears that you are still looking elsewhere to find a solution to do mesh -> solids conversions even though I had properly explained that it simply cannot be done. I often see this in my emails, given then I get about 3 to 6 people per day looking for such a solution. About 1/3rd of them will come back to me stating that they have found such a solution but, unfortunately, and as I explain, that is the "wool being pulled down upon their eyes".

It really comes down to a person looking for "hope", forever searching, hopefully, for a solution that no one else has found before. Thus, what you have tripped across on the File-Extensions.org is a person, with zero knowledge about the 3D graphics market, making a 100% assumption that a piece of software can do something it cannot. I'm the world's expert on 3D computer graphics so I've had a lot of issues with the WEB designer who created File-Extensions.org (people make these WEB sites to make money, not to properly educate the public). He has simply made an assumption that mesh to solids is a basic, everyday process simply due to 3ds Max stating to have STEP support. I know of this well since I started with 3ds Max 30 years ago when it was still a simple mesh modeller on the Atari|ST computer and I introduced all of its CAD conversion software in 1993. As such, I know more about 3ds Max than even Autodesk — Autodesk only buys up old software and resells it, as it had done with 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Revit, Navisworks and most of its products.

3ds Max is just a very old animation program defined in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is not a CAD program whatsoever. So, there is no magic about importing a SketchUp file and exporting a STEP file. Even if you can do that, that again is "pulling the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting". I do that "party trick" in my IGES exporter, knowingly, as I can take mesh data and "export it to CAD", as IGES (which is similar to STEP) but in no way is that actually doing a mesh -> NURBS/solids resampling process. It is this lack of understanding about the difference between mesh data and NURBS/solids data which is really the culprit for this worldwide misunderstanding of the process, as otherwise it is very easy to fool/trick anyone into buying software which states that it can do this mesh -> solids process. I made note of that, expressly, in my first extended email knowing that the people I am writing to will still pursue a solution even though I've explained it technically cannot be done, and not done at the nearly-free prices that SketchUp users wish for. I hope that gives you a better idea of what you're up against right now.

Regards,

Robert Lansdale, CTO & Product Manager Okino Computer Graphics. ---------------

1515 Britannia Road East. Mississauga, Ontario. L4W 4K1. Tel: 888-3D-OKINO, (905) 672-9328

For certain, when someone writes a usable version, it should be at the top of the Google search results pretty fast and it will cost a lot of money.

Until then, the best option is to use the data as a backdrop and create a surface/solid model you think is sufficient.