STL file import for sculpting edit?

[Anonymous]

i have built a model in another design program and exported as stl, now i import stl into fusion,can i edit it using the sculpting workspace?

[Anonymous]

common Phil like im going to say no, maybe i can get em back in quad? that be super if is not to much to ask

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

Haha, thanks Frank. Yes, I would be happy to give you the quad meshes. Might take a few days though, there are a lot of bones in the human body. 

[Anonymous]

no no i know just do half ill mirror the half, thanks !

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

I got you covered, I started working on it last night, PM me with your email info so I can add you to the Project. Then you will have access to the files as I create them.

[Anonymous]

sure will.

[PhilProcarioJr · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous

Your added to the project, Please don't change any of the files just download them and create your own project.

Progress:

[Anonymous]

no problem also you dont have to quad all those little bones just the main large ones  thanks Phil

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

I need all the bones thats why I'm doing the little ones too. 

I'll see about getting the large bones done first so you can do what your wanting to.

[Anonymous]

Thank Phil,

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

More progress and some file reorganization.

[PhilProcarioJr]

LLium Bone came out nice...

[Anonymous]

lovely!

[Anonymous]

nice, thanks for the effort

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, I'm just reading this thread and it is super interesting because I am working with meshes as base shape sources and trying to climb the learning curve as you were doing here. 

I'm in the same boat you started in, in that the meshes I am seeing so far will not convert to solids and I end up with a lot of surfaces that wil not merge or combine in any way.

I read all the way through and it looked like you had figured out a workflow to get there, but I could not see if you had ever really documented the step by step and the tools you used...

I know its a favor to ask, but I would be grateful if you could take a moment and do that, 

and even more grateful if you could identify open source or free tools that would enable the workflow.

Thanks in advance for any advice or help you could offer here...

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

There didn't seem like much interest in this other then Franks, so the complete process really wasn't documented. I guess this is a case where it doesn't pay to silently stalk the boards. 

All though the process is rather simple using the tools I use, it would cost $100 to do it the way I do.

There is free alternatives to Topogun, (Blender) being the main one and the one I would recommend using to retopologize the meshes. I have seen free retopologizing apps posted here and there on the forums but honestly all of them lack the control I was after for my end results. Since the goal was to use these meshes in a CAD environment I needed precision and complete control over the final solid models. The reason I use Topogun as opposed to Blender is speed and tool set. Keep in mind Blender is fully capable its just a slower process.

I have planned on doing a set of videos detailing exactly how to do what is done in this thread and a lot more. 

Right now I just don't have the time and my first priority is getting this skeleton done for Frank, then I can focus on the tutorials. So it will probably be 2-3 weeks before that will happen. I can however outline the steps and with a little googling and youtubing you can get your models into Fusion to work with.

First step is to make a quad polygon mesh from your model: Usually with retopology using apps like Topogun, Blender, Lightwave, Maya, Zbrush etc. In this step make sure your mesh has less then 10,000 polygons!

Second step is to upload that .obj file to your project folder and place the .obj file into a scene.

Third step is to convert the mesh to a B-Rep, an optional step is to load the obj as a T-Spline in the sculpt environment. Which one you use just depends on how you want to work with the mesh.

Now there are videos in this thread that show all of this except how to retopologize a mesh into quads. 

One video for that can be found here:

Video

There are tons of them out there but this should help if you can't wait for me to get mine done.

I hope this helps you.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

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@PhilProcarioJr wrote:

@Anonymous

First step is to make a quad polygon mesh from your model: Usually with retopology using apps like Topogun, Blender, Lightwave, Maya, Zbrush etc. In this step make sure your mesh has less then 10,000 polygons!

Second step is to upload that .obj file to your project folder and place the .obj file into a scene.

Third step is to convert the mesh to a B-Rep, an optional step is to load the obj as a T-Spline in the sculpt environment. Which one you use just depends on how you want to work with the mesh.

Hey Phil, thanks for your reply. It is helpful... I have been doing a similiar thing, using meshmixer (edit) -> Memento (re-topologize) -> Fusion 360 and that works enough to get something sort of low res to a CAM solution but as I said, I usually end up in a place where I have a collection of surfaces and not a solid due to issues in the mesh.

In a previous message you said:

quad poly mesh and convert it to a sub-d model then to a NURBS model then export that as an igs file and open that in fusion.

and I did not really understand anything in that sentence after Quad poly... Is this the same workflow? Doesn't seem to be, and I was sort of hoping you had some other magic I could try that might give me a different result in terms of model quality and ability to get to a true solid...

Thanks

/malcolm

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

Meshmixer and Momento are the apps I just don't have enough control over the mesh so I don't use them. Prime example is when you need more detail in smaller areas and less in broader areas....they make uniform distribution of polygons.....that's very bad for what I do.

I can help you but I would need one of your trouble meshes to see exactly what needs to be done to get what you need. I can make any mesh work for what your asking but the steps to get the results really depends on what your making. If your willing to send one to me I can help you, if not I will still try but it will be more difficult.

As to the sentence your having trouble understanding....That work flow requires Maya and it is definitely not free and to my knowledge there is no free software that works with converting meshes to Sub-D then NURBS to export to igs.

Sub-D definition

NURBS definition

[PhilProcarioJr]

@Anonymous

More progress:

[Anonymous]

---

@PhilProcarioJr wrote:

I can help you but I would need one of your trouble meshes to see exactly what needs to be done to get what you need. I can make any mesh work for what your asking but the steps to get the results really depends on what your making. If your willing to send one to me I can help you, if not I will still try but it will be more difficult.

As to the sentence your having trouble understanding....That work flow requires Maya and it is definitely not free and to my knowledge there is no free software that works with converting meshes to Sub-D then NURBS to export to igs.

Sub-D definition

NURBS definition

---

Phil

I appreciate your offer to help. I've had others make a similiar offer to fix meshes for me but what I am really seeking is a repeatable process I can perform for myself.

If you wish to see the original mesh I am working with you can find it here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:456203

It was chosen at random and the only thing special about it is that it is not...

The current project is to take mesh scans of antiquities like statues or bas-relief pieces such as this one and carve them into blocks of firewood.

so the process needed is to acquire, edit, retopo, ingest, manipulate, and then CAM out. The target renderer is an Inventables X-carve.

Once I get all that figured out I may branch out to work on skeletons of aquatic mammals in aluminum 🙂 ...but that is down the road.

right now, as I said, I can sort of ingest this, but the mesh is still a problem. 

I'll play with it some more...

I'll look at the other tools you mentioned. Thanks!

[PhilProcarioJr]

Ok, to do that since you don't have Maya your going to need to break it up. I would do the hair as one piece the head as another and the torso as one.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow so unfortunately I can't do a video on this until I get back. I will see what I can come up with. This would be so easy with maya.......oh well I can still show you how to do it when I get back. Sorry it can't be sooner.

Oh and for the record I wasn't offering to do it for you I wanted your model so I could make a video showing how to do it using your model.