[SOLVED] modify STL issue : need help to understand

[spilz]

Hi everybody

first of all, thanks for you help, and sorry for my bad English
it's my second time here, so if I do something wrong, let me know.

I'm a newby in FreeCAD,
I have a stl file that I would like to modify.

Y_belt_holder.STL

original STL file

(47.54 KiB) Downloaded 51 times

.
I already did it with success with other file, but with this file I'm not able to do it

What i did :
- import stl file
- go to "part"
- piece -> creat form from mesh (my FreeCad is in frensh, so the menu translate can be not exact)
- select mesh 0.01
- I get a new model.
- I export as stl file (without modifying it, just to test)

but when I try to open the file with CURA or repetier to print the file, it looks like some part of the file are not "closed", like if there are only walls somewhere in the new stl file.

how can I solve it ?
how creat a volume inside these walls ?


i'm using : (the last one I think)

OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6704 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: 0c449d7e8f9b2b1fb93e3f8d1865e2f59d7ed253
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

thanks for your help

regards

Spilz

[DeepSOIC]

Hi!
Did you know your mesh is not a single solid, but rather 15 solids?
FreeCAD doesn't seem to be successful at converting this mesh to part. The result is a compound of only 6 pieces, not 15.

Code: Select all

Selected document object:
  Name = Y_belt_holder001
  Label = Y_belt_holder001
  Is placement/array = False
Structure: 
Compound (reversed) (6 objects):
    Shell (reversed) (12 faces)
    Shell (reversed) (12 faces)
    Shell (reversed) (12 faces)
    Shell (reversed) (12 faces)
    Shell (reversed) (12 faces)
    Shell (reversed) (912 faces)

So maybe you should try to fix the mesh.. somehow...
I expected FreeCAD to be able to split the mesh into pieces, but haven't found how (I have poor knowledge of mesh design WB). But I can split them in Slic3r.

split-mesh.png (16.05 KiB) Viewed 1379 times

[NormandC]

I expected FreeCAD to be able to split the mesh into pieces, but haven't found how (I have poor knowledge of mesh design WB).

It can! The utility is actually in the Arch workbench, of all places.

Go to the menu Architecture --> Utilities --> Split Mesh. It will split the original mesh into 15 separate meshes. You then have to convert them all to shapes, and convert the shapes to solid, and after that you can use Part Union to fuse everything together.

Thankfully you can select them all and do the operations once.

But you will hit a snag when you attempt to fuse the "fins" to the main body. Sorry I can't spend any more time on this tonight.

[spilz]

hello,
thanks for helping me

I didn't know that it became 15 solids.
but I don't know how to see them, how to move one from the other?

I tried Split Mesh, but it looks like nothing change, I should use it wrong way.

[spilz]

hello,

nobody find a solution for this ?
thanks for your help

regards

[NormandC]

I tried Split Mesh, but it looks like nothing change, I should use it wrong way.

The 3D view does not change. In the Model tree, you should see 15 different meshes inside a new folder.

FC_spilz_Y_belt_holder_01.png (20.64 KiB) Viewed 1326 times

Then as I wrote, you select all the meshes and go to Part --> Create shape from mesh. At this point the 15 meshes are still selected, you can delete them.

Select the 15 shapes, go to Part --> Refine shape. You can delete the original shapes.

Select the 15 new refined shapes, go to Part --> Convert to solid. Again, you can delete the previous shapes that remained selected.

You now end up with 15 solids. In theory, all that is left to do is to select all of them and use Part Union.

Yesterday when I tried this, the Union failed to produce a valid solid. But inexplicably, today it works.

I'm providing my file but I recommend you try it for yourself with the original STL.

OS: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6703 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: 2ce5c8d2e3020d05005ed71f710e09e9aa561f40
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[spilz]

thanks a lot for your reply,

I understand, I did "mesh" in part before "split mesh" in Arch, that's why I saw Nothing in the model tree ...

now it works

one last stupide question :
how do you add icon of freecad in your reply ? it's really easier to explain and understand, moreover when we use freecad in other language than English

[NormandC]

one last stupide question :
how do you add icon of freecad in your reply ? it's really easier to explain and understand

It is not a stupid question.

I link the icon from the documentation page for a command. But I have a few tricks up my sleeve to do that.

I was an administrator on this forum for some time. Back then, I created a custom BB tag named "wiki" which everybody can use. You can see a "wiki" button at the end of the "Post a reply" toolbar.

FC_forum_Post_a_reply_toolbar_01.png (25.24 KiB) Viewed 1315 times

I'm also an admin on the FreeCAD wiki (not as active as I used to be though), and I've memorized many of the common command page names.

The URL links to the command pages are always of this form:

Code: Select all

http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Workbench_ToolName

Where you replace "Workbench" with the workbench name, and "ToolName" with the name of the tool.

What the "wiki" button does is to automatically add the first part of the wiki URL up to the equal sign. So I just have to type Part Union, select it and click on the "wiki" button. What it looks like in the "Post a reply" window is this:

Code: Select all

[wiki]Part Union[/wiki]

I then use the "Preview" button to look how my reply will appear. It gives the link to the command page like so:

Part Union

You will notice that the real URL of the command page has an underscore "_", "Part_Union". But the space character is automatically converted to an underscore.

Now that I have a link to the command page, I click on it to open in a second tab in my browser.

In the page, the tool icon is shown at the top left. I right-click on it, which opens a contextual menu. I select "Copy image link". (You can see in the screen capture below that my system is not in English.)

FC_how_to_use_command_icon_01.png (96.23 KiB) Viewed 1315 times

And now I just need to click on the "Img" button in the reply toolbar, and paste the image link between the Img brackets. In my reply window, next to the command page this is how it appears:

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/images/4/45/Part_Union.png[/img] [wiki]Part Union[/wiki]

Which once previewed/submitted will look like this: Part Union

And that's it. Reading my long explanation it seems a little convoluted, but with little practice it is very quick to do.

[spilz]

Very nice !!

I keep it in mind and will try to use it next time
My real problem is as I use freecad in French, I don't know the English translations of all workbench name and the names of tools ...

Just I idea : is it possible (I guess it takes time) to have it as smilies ? Like this, people who don't use English all the time can use icon directly in post and have translation at the same time.

[NormandC]

My real problem is as I use freecad in French

Why would you consider it a problem? As you've seen my native language is French as well. I'm very fluent in English but I use FreeCAD in French, I just switch it to English in its Preferences when I take screenshots of FreeCAD's user interface. Therefore I can switch between French and English many times each night I reply to topics here.

I don't know the English translations of all workbench name and the names of tools ...

What you can do is to take the longer approach.

From the documentation site: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... =Main_Page

Scroll down to the "Table of contents" section and click on the "Table des matières" link. There you have links to all the workbenches. Most workbench pages list the commands with their icons. You can right-click on them as well.

http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... Les_outils

Just I idea : is it possible (I guess it takes time) to have it as smilies ? Like this, people who don't use English all the time can use icon directly in post and have translation at the same time.

I don't know if you realize how many icons there are in FreeCAD! The list would be huge, and difficult to wade through.

All of them are listed as SVG files in the documentation page Artwork (and its French translation Artwork/fr).

Still, you could always create a topic about your suggestion in the Open discussion forum, and see what the admins and other users think about it. Otherwise, in this topic, it will be overlooked and/or quickly forgotten.