Community
Inventor Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s Inventor Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular Inventor topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

When I export to STL. format, the dimensions are incorrect

10 REPLIES 10
SOLVED
Reply
Message 1 of 11
gsger5
10595 Views, 10 Replies

When I export to STL. format, the dimensions are incorrect

When I export a file into STL. format, and then open that STL. file back in Inventor, the file has scaled to the wrong dimensions. Am I exporting it incorrectly? What am I doing wrong?

10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11
Curtis_Waguespack
in reply to: gsger5

Hi  gsger5,

 

Assuming you're using Inventor 2011 or later, you can click the Options button when exporting the STL file and set the units in the resulting dialog box. Note that there was a bug with this option in Inventor 2012, but Service pack 1 fixed it (if I recall correctly).

 

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

Message 3 of 11
gsger5
in reply to: Curtis_Waguespack

Can't believe I over-looked that, thanks! This should solve my problems.

Message 4 of 11
gsger5
in reply to: Curtis_Waguespack

I need to scale a part up by 2, I'm not sure how though.

Message 5 of 11
JDMather
in reply to: gsger5

Start new file and Derive Component and select Scale.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


EESignature

Message 6 of 11

I'm using AutoCAD version 2017 on mac, and I'm having similar issues. How could I solve this on AutoCAD 2017 mac version? I do not see options on the Mac version!

Message 7 of 11
JDMather
in reply to: tiwarias

Does Mac version support the command -dwgunits?

Can you Attach your *.dwg file here and the resulting *.stl file that is exported?


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


EESignature

Message 8 of 11
tiwarias
in reply to: JDMather

Yes, it supports. When I type -DWGUNITS it gave me choices: I choose centimeter because I want to have my units in centimeters (not for 3d printing jobs). I also see STLOUT command that helps me to save STL solids, but the problem is when I exported the STL files its size becomes tiny. I check this STL output size in different program and I believe that is correct.

 

I'm attaching cad drawing and exported STL file. Hope you help me to figure out this problem.

Thank you.

Message 9 of 11
JDMather
in reply to: tiwarias


@tiwarias wrote:

Yes, it supports. When I type -DWGUNITS it gave me choices: I choose centimeter because I want to have my units in centimeters ...


When I open your file I see the units set as mm, not cm?

What program are you using to open your stl?

 

I measure about 34x32x19 mm for the geometry in AutoCAD.

Edit: I also recommend that you set FACETRES=10 before exporting to stl


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


EESignature

Message 10 of 11
tiwarias
in reply to: JDMather

I set the cm unit using the UNITS tab as in attached screenshot. I do not understand how it switches to mm. Is there a way to scale back to cm, so that I could get a correct dimensions in STL.

Message 11 of 11
johnsonshiue
in reply to: tiwarias

Hi! Most mesh files are unitless. The data stored in the files do not carry any unit. You need to make sure the export model unit and import model unit are in sync. When importing a STL file to Inventor, you can click on Options -> set the desirable scaling unit. In your case, you should select cm. Then it should work.

If it does not, please share the example here so forum experts can help take a look.

Many thanks!



Johnson Shiue (johnson.shiue@autodesk.com)
Software Test Engineer

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report