Hello peeps! Can anyone recommend a good online file converter or software?
I want to convert a few stl files into editable formats such as, 3dm, Iges, Step SLDPRT, or SLDASM. So I can open them in Rhino and Shapr3D.
Please let me know.
Blender & Meshlab are both free and have many different file formats for both import & export. Not sure if they have the formats you’re looking for but there is a wide array of 3rd party plugins for blender that may suit your needs.
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Thanks I will investigate Meshlab.
It’s definitely one to investigate…I warn you though, it’s not for the faint hearted & needs you to believe that even though it looks like shit (designed by software engineers & mathematicians) it has lots of amazing powers. You just need to take a breath and look for the function that you need - its probably in there somewhere.
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Thank you. Another question. if I needed to extend a prong on a ring, will I be able to
Achieve that in meshlab?
I’ve only ever used meshlab for file format conversion or holistic mesh based things such as decreasing the number of faces (decimation) and converting triangular faces to quads. I’m not sure if there are modelling type tools in there. I’d be more inclined to go into blender in order to move / extrude faces, especially as you’re working with jewellery models. Why not use Rhino (presuming your file conversion question above meant that you’re a whizz on Rhino?)
You can convert these CAD file formats like Step and Iges to STL but not backwards.
That’s because CAD files are more parametric, for example they could contain a description like “sphere with radius 5” while the STL contains 500 triangles on that sphere so most of the parameters that were used to create the model are missing in the STL and can’t be reconstructed easily.
So if you find a nice STL on thingiverse for example you’ll have to ask the author for the source Step file if you want to edit it in a CAD program.
I am not a wiz at Rhino the interface is too complexed, and I am a beginner.
I mostly use Nomad and Shapr. as they’re more user friendly, and both mobile.
I created the source files in Shapr and it saves files as stl but
You cannot edit them if the bodies are unified, hence I want to convert
Them into the editable formats listed above and import them back into
Shapr to edit.
Theres another reasonably good iPad modeller called Onshape, which I came across just recently. I haven’t tried Shapr yet - I tend to try lots of apps to see what they’re capable of, but mostly to see if there is something that I can do easier of quicker in that app and then import back into Nomad. The tools in nomad are increasing all the time so I think that I’ll be doing this less and less over time.
It’s not possible to get back from STL to CAD formats (there’s some hacks but they don’t really work most of the time)
Best would be if you save files you want to edit again later using the original Shaper format, this has the most info stored (Even with Step and Iges you lose most construction information)
I have heard of onshape, but it’s not as good as Shapr3D and it’s way overpriced.
Ok, Thank you for the info.
Onshape has a free version too, just a suggestion for hard surface modelling to work in tandem with Nomad.
Ok. I will take a look again, Thank you.