topic Re: I want to create a surface from a mesh in Inventor Forum

I want to create a surface from a mesh

kyler_lind — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:44:23 GMT

I want to create a surface from a mesh to complete FEA analysis with. The file contains a laser scan converted to an STL mesh of a large above ground storage tank. I need a surface for the shell (Cylinder) to mesh with shell elements in inventor nastran. Can anyone tell me the best way to go about this? I have tried the "Fit mesh face" feature but it is not great. Any help on this would be great.

Re: I want to create a surface from a mesh

JDMather — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 16:39:57 GMT

@kyler_lind

The geometry is very simple (but the mesh is rubbish representation of the geometry).

I would simply recreate from scratch using the mesh only as reference.

Should only take a few minutes.

Edit: Are you sure you selected the correct units on import?

Re: I want to create a surface from a mesh

kyler_lind — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 16:41:50 GMT

The units arent correct you are right. Its hard to see from the mesh, but it isnt a perfect cylinder and i want to maintain the shape with the reverse engineered model. What method would you recommend to do this?

Re: I want to create a surface from a mesh

sam — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 17:22:13 GMT

I use Dezignworks for reverse engineering & I am very Happy with it. It is a fraction of the price of similar software & even better because it is an Inventor Addin, so you never have to leave the Inventor interface. Giving you the ability to scan & probe directly inside Inventor with real time mesh results. The creators & owners are very nice people & extreamly intelligent. It works with many types of scanning & probing devices, (I use a FARO Edge portable CMM) from several different reputable companies in the laser scanning & reverse engineering world. I Highly recomend Dezignworks to anyone seeking an easy solution to reverse engineering.

Re: I want to create a surface from a mesh

kacper.suchomski — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 21:10:27 GMT

@kyler_lind wrote:

it isnt a perfect cylinder and i want to maintain the shape with the reverse engineered model. What method would you recommend to do this?

This is not a problem. Just use the Spline command instead of circle in the sketch.
You can project the mesh points onto the sketch to determine the spline trajectory.
You can also see that the solid is not perfectly vertical, so you can make 2 boundary sketches and use Loft instead of extrude.

Either way, as @JDMather mentioned, it will take you a few minutes to modeling this geometry.