Mesh to solid

3D Printing 3D modeling software
#1

Anyone know of any utilities to convert mesh to solid? Primarily open source.

#2

You can convert solid model to mash but not vice versa.

#3

[quote name=YosemiteSam]You can convert solid model to mash but not vice versa.
[/quote]

Hi,

Plenty of commercial CAD programs convert mesh to solid, I use Inventor which does not have the ability to do it by default without paying extra. Solidworks and I believe Rhino do it no problem without paying for add-ons.

I’ve been trolling Google for a while and finally came across this using FreeCAD:

http://www.reddit.com/r/cad/comments/1kbfbp/stl_to_solid_body/

May give it a shot tonight.

#4

Have to have a watertight mesh and the solid thing won’t matter from what I have found out. Only thing I found that is stable and I like that fixes my meshes is Netfabb the private version cause some of the repair buttons needed don’t come with Netfabb basic. I’ve tried Rhinoceros but its unstable and kinda medicare. While it has lots of different things on it, I have noticed it screws my meshes up more than fixes them.

Contact Netfabb and they will give you a 10 day trial of the Netfabb Private. I’m actually going to go buy a version now for 300 bucks cause my trial ran out and is a must for novice or mediocre 3d designers. lol Cheers

btw, I use Blender to make my meshes.

#5

…15 months on, sorry, what’s the best (& easiest & cheapest) way to convert STL files to solid models eg. IGES, STEP etc please_?

#6

I think FreeCad is still a choice. For complex models it can take hours on a fast machine to convert STL to STEP, but hey, that's free. Also the mesh has to be fixed for errors before attempting a part conversion, you can do it in Freecad itself.

#7

Rhinoceros converts. Command MeshToNURB.

There is also a third part plugin: RhinoResurf

I’m using in complex organic meshes. It’s not intuitive, quality is so so… A lot of editing work.

I don’t know how it works when precision is a must have.

#8

You can convert solid model to mash but not vice versa.

Patato, Patatoe

#9

You can convert mesh to solid in Designspark Mechanical. It is great free software. Modifying a solid converted from a mesh is another story..

#10

Tinkercad can import STLs. You can edit them in Tink and/or export as OBJ.

#11

A Mesh is a solid in that it's faceted solid and not parametric (e.g. Non Uniform Rational Bezier Spline based).  For printing in 3D it's kinda a non-issue.  Unless you wish to use a solid modeler to modify an existing mesh.  Otherwise use a mesh modeler to modify the mesh.