n00b questions on Inventor Fusion 2013 and .stl files.....

[Anonymous]

I'm looking at doing some modeling for 3d printing, and I'm trying to step up from Blender to AutoCAD/Inventor Fusion.

From the Blender perspective, it's easy to import a file (I'm using http://grabcad.com/library/ruger-10-22-bullpup-concept
 ), pick a face/vertex, hit CRTL+L to get all lined faces/vertexes of a sub-part, and then delete/move/copy/whatever.

I can't seem to find the way to accomplish this in Inventor Fusion. It seems to load the STL as a solid that I can't edit. I have tried saving the file as a .dwg and reopen it, but that does not help. (Although I can then open it in AutoCAD, and it causes massive lag trying to just move around and view it.)

So:

How do I edit an imported .stl file?

And how do I take advantage of selecting linked parts/faces?

Thanks!

[JDMather]

I don't know if this works with Fusion or not - but you might check this out

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_mesh

[schneik-adsk]

Blender is a mesh modeler.  Fusion is a solid modeler, unfortunately it is not so easy to take mesh files like stl and edit them.  They are made up of small triangle chase and don;t have real circles, holes or fillets.

What types of changes are you trying to make and can you post an example stl file so we can help provide suggestions on how you might be able to use Fusion more effectively?

[Anonymous]

Inventor Mesh apparently does not work in Fusion..... I'll have to see about downloading the 30-day trial of Inventor and see if that will work for me.

[Anonymous]

Kevin,

The website does not accept the .stl extension for uploading, so I’ll attach a .dwg file (I simply opened the .stl, and save it as .dwg.)

I’m trying to work with files for 3d printing, which is why I’m using the .stl format.

As far as changes I’m trying to make….. does “everything” count? One of the projects I am working on is to convert some models for crazy-looking guns in video games into props. (similar to http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ee47/?srp=4 ) The video game files are in .psk format (skeletal mesh), but the game files contain all possible in-game options (scopes, handles, etc.) and they just make some parts visible or invisible as needed. I’m trying to edit these files to remove the sections I don’t need, and keep the ones I do. (I can't attach an example of the "raw" file with all the parts, it's over the 1.5Mb limit for the website.)

I can do this remove/edit job pretty easily in Blender, but from what I have seen Blender does not handle real world sizing of objects well. I don’t see a way in Blender to say “make this part here 102mm, and scale the rest accordingly.”

This problem is compounded by the fact that I’m going to have to split the model into multiple parts to 3d print. I need exact measurements of pieces to the mm, or I’ll end up printing 3 parts that won’t fit together.

I could do most of my work in Blender if I have to, but at the minimum I’m looking for a way to accurately set the sizing of the model, and then separate the existing pieces with accurate measurements.

[Anonymous]

JDMather,

I installed Inventor Pro and the Mesh Enabler. I can open the files, right-click and choose "show mesh edges." That shows me what I'm used to seeing in things like Blender, but I still can't figure out how to select pieces of the mesh. It seems to come through as 1 solid object - uneditable. I can't seem to highlight a subection of the mesh to edit/remove.

Any thoughts? Or am I just missing something obvious? I did say I was a n00b. 😃

[JDMather]

I downloaded the dwg file and renamed to *.stl and it crashed my system (on two computers).

[Anonymous]

You should be able to open it as .dwg..... don't rename it to .stl.

[JDMather]

>The website does not accept the .stl extension for uploading, so I’ll attach a .dwg file (I simply opened the .stl, and save it as .dwg.)

I mis-read this statement and thought you had renamed an stl as dwg to attach here,

Now I have a very serious problem as the renamed file will not allow my system to run and will not allow me to rename it back to dwg or delete even when starting Windows in Safe Mode. It would be interesting how this is acting like a computer virus if it wasn't my new laptop.  Looks like I might have to do a complete system restore back to original to get rid of this thing,  ouch

[Anonymous]

That sounds horrible..... you should be able to delete anything like that from safe mode......

It's not something simple like right-click the file and make sure it's not read only/acrhive, is it? Sometimes it's the little things that get overlooked.

[JDMather]

I was able get to a Restore Point created a couple of days ago and that problem is solved.  I will try to get back to your problem on Monday.

It looks like I discovered a serious security problem in Windows. 
At work our machines have a program called Deep Freeze that returns the computer as set up by IT each time it is rebooted, so I can safely test things like this.

Turns out if you save even a MS Word *.doc file (can be blank) to the desktop and then rename to *.stl it causes Windows Explorer to go into a failure loop. 

Only discovered this because I thought you renamed an stl in order to attach it here since you can't attach stl directly.

[pcrawley · Accepted solution]

Getting back to the original problem, Fusion is not the tool you want it to be.  As posted earlier, Fusion is a solid modeller, Blender is not.  Blender is a mesh modeller - so if you want "like for like" comparisons, download 3ds max.  That will give you all the push/pull mesh modelling tools you can imagine (and a few more).  It supports STL files too (unlike Windows explorer apparently!) 

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I'll look into it today.