Does anyone here use Evolve by Solidthinking? I'm getting weird results in Z-Suite out of 90% of the STLs I export out of Evolve. I can build the same part in Rhino, bring it in to Z-Suite and it works fine. I also can export the STL out of Evolve, open it in Modeler, the rip for our Projet 3510, and it works fine.
The work around I have for now is to save my Evolve file as a .3DM file, open that file in Rhino and go from there. The weird thing is when I do it that way, I have to join all my surfaces again in Rhino to make them solid.
I get the same sort of thing with Nettfabb basic. I repair my still and it is fine. I export it and it fixes the manifolds but if I load that fixed file back into Nettfabb, it shows the same errors it had in the beginning. Makes me wonder if it even works.
I never had the pleasure of using Evolve. Is it a decent program besides the issue at hand?
I get the same sort of thing with Nettfabb basic. I repair my still and it is fine. I export it and it fixes the manifolds but if I load that fixed file back into Nettfabb, it shows the same errors it had in the beginning. Makes me wonder if it even works.
I never had the pleasure of using Evolve. Is it a decent program besides the issue at hand?
It's funny you bring up NettFab basic. Today I figured out how to repair the STLs out of Evolve...with Nettfab! I simply use the automatic repair and let Nettfab replace the file. I tried it on four files and it worked every time. Turned out my work around with Rhino didn't work every time, which is fine, that would be an expensive way to fix files!
Yeah, Evolve is great other than the whole STL thing. I like it a lot better than Rhino, save for a few things. I've sent an email to their support team about the problem so we'll see what they say.
Just in case anyone is following this thread or has this problem in the future, I have the solution. Support at Evolve got back to me right away and answered that plus some other questions I had. I emailed them today and responded within 20 minutes. After I described my problems, they set up a meeting online with GoToMeeting, which is a shared screen conference app. Very impressed with their support.
So the solution is, when exporting your STLs from Evolve do not jump to "save as STL". Make sure you convert your object to a Polymesh first using the Nurbs to Polymesh (even if your object is not Nurbs) command. The key is to make sure you check the "Advanced Tessellation" check box and set your mesh manually. Do that and then "save as STL" and boom, water tight mesh.