STL to CAD

[nkloski]

Hi there,

I was asked to post to this forum to give my feedback on a workflow for dealing with STL file conversion.  As 3D printing gains in popularity, dealing with these files will become more and more important.  Additionally, I am aware of the BMesh tool that can convert smaller STL files, but also, as 3D printing gains in popularity, so will 3D scanning.  My 3D scans range from 500K polygons, up to 2.5M polygons, which is outside what you suggest for the BMesh tool.  Here is my suggested workflow:

-import .OBJ or .STL

-load it into the creation tool

-give simple commands (similar to the ones in SketchUp) that allow me to "help" your program deal with the mesh.  Allow me to draw planes, circles, polygons as individual areas with "generally" the right curves, angles, etc. using the same deformation tools as in the main Fusion program

-have each drawn plane "snap" to points on the STL in a general sense.  Have the new drawn plane "color" the STL so I know what have covered and what I have not

-snap surfaces near each other together to make them contiguous, maybe use a knife tool to split them if you need to

-have Fusion convert those items into parametric surfaces

...the key here is that the program should leverage the human's understanding of what they want to give hints to the program.  Even if I scan things that are extremely complex, I would not mind going through and adding in surface data manually, if it gave a good result.

[schneik-adsk]

STL to BREP/Solid was added in the May 21st update. Create a base feature, then in modify import a mesh/stl. in modify group use mesh to beep to convert to solid.

[osmithyman]

I can't figure out how to do this. Is this still implemented? When I go to Modify, import is not an option.

[osmithyman]

Ah, I see it's now under Insert, not Modify. 

[ephvhtoras]

hello gys. I have the 2017 version and i have the same problem. i cant convert a scanned object (stl) to a solid object. could you help me with this ?

[nkloski]

This is totally in Fusion now (since the original posting in 2014).  In order to easily convert an STL to a solid surface, you will need to import the model as quads.  STL's are not quads, so you would need to use a program like "Instant Meshes" to convert it or something like that beforehand.