Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

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jeno
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by jeno »

chrisb wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 9:43 am
jeno wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 8:18 am
chrisb wrote: Thu Nov 19, 2020 11:13 pm ...
As the file format doesn't support separate solids, there is nothing FreeCAD can do about it.
This is only partially true.
You quoted only partially. As mentioned in my post, FreeCAD uses the binary format; so ASCII-stl would be a new export format.
Mesh Workbench Mesh Export also offers Ascii-STL
MeshWB_Export_Mesh.png
MeshWB_Export_Mesh.png (10.55 KiB) Viewed 1369 times
But it seems, that this feature is not supported :(
R23D wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:36 am ...'Can Freecad export multiple meshes in ASCII STL format?' Or in some other not too rare format that allows this? It would be VERY useful to me and simplify my life greatly to be able to put multiple meshes into one ASCII STL... :D
At least I haven't found a way to do it. Workaround: Mesh Workbench -> Mesh from Shape for all shapes you need. Select all meshes and export it to wavefront object files. There you can save multiple meshes in one file

Kind regards
R23D
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by R23D »

I've just tried exporting as an AST and as a Wavefront Obj file and in both instances, Freecad combined all the meshes into one homogeneous blob... :(
chrisb
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by chrisb »

Roy_043 wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:54 am This is not correct.
Sorry! I should have checked better. You are right, I was wrong.
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jeno
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by jeno »

R23D wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 11:18 am I've just tried exporting as an AST and as a Wavefront Obj file and in both instances, Freecad combined all the meshes into one homogeneous blob... :(
That is strange. I tried it and I get 3 independent Meshes in Blender with the obj-file.
3 Cubes.png
3 Cubes.png (121.54 KiB) Viewed 1339 times
Attachments
3 Cubes.obj
(1.86 KiB) Downloaded 39 times
R23D
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by R23D »

And the further problem with trying to use Mesh export for this purpose is the fact that it is ghosted and can't be reached when multiple meshes are selected... and I don't see an 'add/append mesh to file' button so... :cry:
R23D
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by R23D »

That's blender... Oh you mean you made it in Freecad? :o Well, it doesn't re-open in Freecad as multiple meshes...
R23D
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by R23D »

Ok... maybe it will open as multiple meshes in the program in which I want it to. Hang on I'll check. I've been testing it in Freecad because... well... seemed sensible at the time... Also seems like it should if that's what it actually is...
R23D
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by R23D »

Nope... Cura can't open my Wavefront file at all. Says it's corrupt. :cry:
jeno
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by jeno »

R23D wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 12:33 pm And the further problem with trying to use Mesh export for this purpose is the fact that it is ghosted and can't be reached when multiple meshes are selected... and I don't see an 'add/append mesh to file' button so... :cry:
Yes, thats true. But you are able to save it with File -> Export obj. That's indeed not consistent.
R23D wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 12:34 pm That's blender... Oh you mean you made it in Freecad? :o Well, it doesn't re-open in Freecad as multiple meshes...
It reopens independent with the option
Dialog_Import_OBJ.png
Dialog_Import_OBJ.png (21.72 KiB) Viewed 1272 times
wavefront obj. With Alias Mesh it will be merged to a single Mesh.
R23D wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 12:44 pm Nope... Cura can't open my Wavefront file at all. Says it's corrupt. :cry:
Sorry to hear that, but I have no idea how to solve that.

Kind regards
TedM
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Re: Exporting Multiple Meshes to one STL...

Post by TedM »

This is odd. I have no problems exporting multiple objects in a single STL file and Cura opens it and shows the objects spaced as I had them in FreeCAD. I've actually been doing this for quite a while. I simply select the objects and then do File->Export as an STL file.

I've done this with multiple PartDesign bodies and multiple Part objects with no problem. I just tested with two Part objects: a cube and a cylinder. I then modified the X and Y placement of the cylinder so they don't overlap. Selected the two objects with the tree view: click one, control-click the other. Exported as an STL. Opened the STL in Cura 4.7.1.

My current FreeCAD, though this has worked as far back as 0.18.4, I believe:

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OS: Windows 10 (10.0)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.22665 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: b0d7850406e046f3b7a8cd5da261e7d54df6bd99
Python version: 3.8.6
Qt version: 5.12.9
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.4.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)
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