Import stl results in empty file

[Anonymous]

Good morning!

I am struggling with importing an stl (it is 2.3 GB big!) file. Alias does not show any error, but the file remains empty. The file name changes to match the imported file name.

Saving creates a 63 KB wire-file. Empty.

Can you please help me finding a solution? Thank you!

[rauscht]

Good morning,

sorry to hear you are facing issues with our STL importer.

Which flavor (Studio, Surface, etc.) and version of Alias are you using? Has that STL file worked for you in earlier versions of Alias? Are you allowed to share the STL file? Have you toggled on logging (File > Import > File (with option) > STL Options > Logfile Output)? What's that log file saying - any suspicious entries there (the file is located in the same folder as the imported STL and has file extension ".stl2alias")?

What is the Object Lister showing (Windows > Object Lister)? Is there Group node entry contained in your active Layer having the name of the imported file? And is there a Group member listed which typically having name "node#<some_number>" and type mesh? Have you checked visibility property of either the Group node and the mesh node (should be set to visible)?

In case the mesh node is there and visible:
What about the color property of that mesh - have you tried to adjust the color? Finally, what is the information window saying about that mesh? Select the mesh node e.g. in the Object Lister, then use Windows > Information > Information Window... and unfold the information section "Mesh Geometry Info" to check the amount of vertices and faces of the mesh.

Hth

Thomas

[Anonymous]

Hi Thomas,

thank you for your quick reply.

I am working with AutoStudio 2020. Unfortunately I have no other Alias version to try those files there.

I am able to import an stl that is 1.9 GB big. I can see the "retrieve" bar for a while and then its there.

The last two files wont work.

I wont even get a log file.

Object Lister empty.

No mesh node.

[rauscht · Accepted solution]

Have I got your description right: you are not seeing a progress bar for that file that is not working? And no log file is been created, neither?

Is there something special about that file (besides its size)? Like

• Fle name (special characters used?)
• Location it is stored (remote location?)
• Local SSD or HD almost full?

Also worth a try:

Can you start the translation into a wire file by using the command line translator (i.e. not Alias' UI). To do this, please perform the following steps:

• Open a cmd shell (Windows button > type in "cmd" and choose "Command Prompt")
• Navigate to the install location of your Alias instance. Typically this is "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AliasAutoStudio2020\bin". Use the command
  cd "\Program Files\Autodesk\AliasAutoStudio2020\bin"
  in the cmd shell to get there (please note the quotation marks)
• Check if you are in the right spot by typing in
  dir Alias.exe
  The cmd shell should display the file system entry for Alias.exe now.
• Navigate into the sub folder translators by typing
  cd translators
• Start the STL to Wire translator by using the following command (all in one line)
  StlToAlias.exe -l 1 -c 1 -s 0 -u 1 -m 1 -t 0.000100 -productKey 966L1 -productVersion 2020.0.0.F -productLicenseType USER -productLicensePath "c:\Program Files\Autodesk\AliasAutoStudio2020\bin\LICPATH.LIC" -i <your_stl_file> -o <target_wire_file>

A few important notes on that recent command:

• The entire command need to go into one single line - please press return only after you have entered the entire command into one line
• This line assumes you using Alias AutoStudio 2020 with a proper license (-productKey 966L1 and -productVersion 2020.0.0.F)
• The used license is assumed to be of type User Subscription (-productLicenseType USER)
• You need to adjust the input file name according to your actual STL file (-i <your_stl_file>)
• You need to adjust the name of the output file too (-o <target_wire_file>)

The reason why we should give the command line translator a try is that sometimes translator problems become more visible / apparent that way.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you got me right. No progress bar, no log file.

File name contains just letters and numbers. Stored on internal SSD. 100 GB free.

I tried your commands.

First try: "dir Alias.exe" works fine, but then "cd translators" results in "The system cannot find the path specified"

Second try: without "dir Alias.exe" "cd translators" results in : "The syntax of the command is incorrect"

But I am a bit lost here. I put in the file name. But how does the command line translator know where the files are located?

[rauscht]

Ehm, are you sure you are using Alias 2020? If you are, there should be a sub-directory called "translators", and the  "cd translators" command should succeed (this time without quotation marks, of course).

If all else fails, maybe it is best to have a private session where we could share screens, if that could work for you. Are you using zoom?

[Anonymous]

Maybe I am not up to those commands... Sorry no expert here.

I am sure I am using Alias 2020 though!

I installed zoom.

[rauscht]

ah, ok - the screen shot helped me to understand what is working and what not.

The translators sub directory is there, and you are in there already. That's good. The system is complaining that there is something wrong in the way you are using the translator StlToAlias.exe. The problem here is with the way you are using the -i and the -o options.

Those -i and the -o options are used to specify the (fully-qualified) location of your input (STL) file and the target output (wire) file resp. In your case, you have used those "<" and ">" characters which you should not (in my description they were used to indicate a placeholder for your actual file names). Let me expand on that by giving an example:

Assume your input STL file has name my_mesh.stl and is stored in a folder c:\workdata\stl_files. Further assume that you want to translate this STL file into a wire file having name my_translatedFile.wire, and should be stored in folder c:\workdata\wire_files. Then the -i option must be
-i "c:\workdata\stl_files\my_mesh.stl"
and the -o option must be

-o "c:\workdata\wire_files\my_translatedFile.wire"

(The quotation marks are only essential if one of these file name contain a space character.)

Please, give it another try by adjusting these two options according to your file names.

[Anonymous]

Yes! Perfect! That works! Thank you very much for your patience and help!

One question remains though: why does it work with this complicated workaround and not directly in Alias interface?

[rauscht]

Glad to hear you are untangled now.

One question remains though: why does it work with this complicated workaround and not directly in Alias interface?

Yes, this is the question I wanted to investigate by using the command line translator variant.

Actually, Alias UI is using the (almost) same call to the command line translator as we just did. In other words: there is no fundamental reason why the translation is not working when using Alias' UI.

What you could do though is the following:

• Open Alias
• Use File > Open (with options) > unfold STL options and make a screen shot of the actual options you are using

Next you or I could compare these options with the options you have used with the command line translator. (When you simply use StlToAlias.exe -h without any further option, a help screen will be shown which explains all the available options. You can compare these with the ones available in Alias' UI.

Btw.: how much time took the command line translator for that 2 GB file?

[Anonymous]

See screenshot enclosed. I tried both though: with and without "logfile output" an with and without "merge vertices".

The 2.3 GB stl took 2 min 27 sec to convert.

The 2.8 GB stl 2 min 19 sec.

[Anonymous]

I found out that the command prompt translator cannot deal with blank spaces within file names. When trying to translate a file named "T5 Test" it would deliver no result. See screenshot below. Renaming the file to "T5Test" the translator works fine.

So I tried it again in Alias just to make sure it was not the file name. Tried the same files with command prompt. Result: the perspective window is gone. No perspective cube, no grid, nothing left. And again: no output file even if it was checked...

I am not able to get the help screen from the command prompt to compare the options. I would appreciate your help comparing them for me.

Thank you so much!

[rauscht]

Good morning,

yes, you are correct: if a file name contains spaces, you would need to use quotation marks around that file name to indicate the beginning and the end of the file name. Assume your input STL file has name T5 Test.stl, then you would need to specify that as an input file by the -i option in the following way:

-i "T5 Test.stl"

The same applies to the output option -o, as to any other option parameter that includes spaces.

If you miss to do it like that, the command line translator will struggle to figure out the options you are using (as parameters to executable (like StlToAlias.exe) are separated by spaces).

Your screen shot Capture4.jpg is already showing the help screen of the command line tool.

So, let's compare the used options in Alias' UI with the ones used by StlToALias.exe

StlToAlias.exe
  -l 1^          -- Logfile Output
  -c 1^          -- Convert Colors
  -s 0^          -- Color Scheme := RGB (1 would be BGR)
  -u 1^          -- Input Units := Millimeters
  -m 1^          -- Merge Vertices
  -t 0.000100^   -- Tolerance Value (as used by merge vertices)
  -productKey 966L1 -productVersion 2020.0.0.F -productLicenseType USER^
  -productLicensePath "c:\Program Files\Autodesk\AliasAutoStudio2020\bin\LICPATH.LIC"^
  -i "<your_stl_file>"^
  -o "<target_wire_file>"

As you can see, you are using the exact same parameters for the command line translator as you do in Alias UI (according to your screen shot). Which is fine - but leaves me for the moment without any idea why STL translation does not yield any result when using Alias' UI.

Some maybe dumb questions for the case you are using Alias' UI for the STL translation:

• Have you waited "long enough" for the result? (Like 3 mins)
• Have you tried also tried File > Open  instead of File > Import > File?
• Have you checked Windows > Object Lister if there are really no objects present in your wire file?
• Have you tried to reset your display by using Layouts > Perspective (or F8 as a short cut)? Is the View Cube showing up again?

And finally, in case you are using the command line variant of the translator:

• Have you opened the yielded wire file in Alias?
• Is the data showing up in this case?
• Are the meshes visible or invisible?

Thanks

Thomas

[Anonymous]

Hi Thomas,

sorry for my late reply, but here it is:

• Have you waited "long enough" for the result? (Like 3 mins): Yes! No result even after 5 mins. Alias is not giving me any feedback at all, nothing happens except changing file name.
• Have you tried also tried File > Open  instead of File > Import > File?: Yes, this is when the viewcube dissapears. You are right though, that I can get it back with F8! But still the file is empty. Even after 5 mins.
• Have you checked Windows > Object Lister if there are really no objects present in your wire file?: There is nothing in it. The object lister does not show any content (except Persp). Also when saving the file, it is just 74 kb big, it is empty, I would say.
• Have you tried to reset your display by using Layouts > Perspective (or F8 as a short cut)? Is the View Cube showing up again?: Yes, see above.

And finally, in case you are using the command line variant of the translator:

• Have you opened the yielded wire file in Alias?: Yes. They are perfectly fine!
• Is the data showing up in this case?: See above.
• Are the meshes visible or invisible?: Meshes are visible and ready to work with!

I don't know if there is a solution, if it is a general problem or just one I am facing. Let me know if I can help with more information, but from my side, I am happy with the result for now. Thank you very much for your help!

[fcorticelli]

Hello, I am having a similar problem on 2022 with a 2.2GB+ stl file. Smaller STLs convert fine. I tried to adapt the syntax to 2022.0.1 and the correct product key, but no result. Then downloaded 2020, which should use the command lines shown in this example but I am getting a

License Authorize FAILED( ADLSDK_STATUS_LICENSE_CHECKOUT_ERROR )

which is of course unexpected.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[fcorticelli]

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