Maybe this has been asked and answered before but I did not see it, so...
I am working a lot with imported meshes.
for a quick summary of the types of things I am trying to do,
you can see some messages here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/stl-file-import-for-sculpting-edit/td-p/59713...
my biggest pain point is the 10k face limit on imported meshes.
I am wondering if there is a way to automate my way around it using the API,
possibly in conjunction with some other python packages.
This is all going to sound ignorant as heck,
so please be gentle with me.
My theory is that if I could in an automated way slice the source mesh into incredbly small subsets,
I could import and convert these in a way which would preserve much more of the original geometry than I am accomplishing today.
As a manual process this seems tedious bordering on impossible: I wonder if I can make the computer do it in an automated way to accomplish this goal?
I am assuming here that the upcoming mesh workspace will be available, as defined by @colin.smith in http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/imported-mesh-models/td-p/6254510
Colin presented this diagram:
However, he also said that the 10k limit would not be dealt with in the intial release.
my questi0n is whether the API could help.
specifically, I wonder if I can automate a workflow to:
in a loop
read a mesh and arbitrarily slice it (possibly using an external tool like numpy-stl or something like that),
import the slice, retaining positional information;
convert the mesh from triangles to quads, and then to BREP
then select all of the BREPS
and merge them back into a whole body
I have taken an initial look at the API as documented
I noted that
- there does not seem to be an STLImport, although there is an STLExport
- there also doesn't appear to be an obvious way to convert a quad mesh to a BREP
I'm probably just not looking in the right place, and the mesh workspace has not been published yet.
so looking for feedback here:
- if you were trying to accomplish the goal of preserving as much detail in an origin STL as possible
and you had Python and the API as a tool to do that with,
is that how you would accomplish that goal,
or would you do it a different way?
for instance, could you read the original stl, take the point cloud from it, and somehow write it directly into the model as BREP surfaces?
- Are all the API calls required available,
or are some still in backlog?
- is the whole idea in your opinion feasible or infeasible given what is available today? if infeasible, when in the roadmap does feasibility arrive?
any help and comments welcomed.
thanks!
/malcolm
