Output STL is MASSIVE!

[Anonymous]

I have a .step/iges file I imported into Fusion360.

All the Bodies/Surfaces are fine for exporting to STL ... except for two Surfaces ... which balloon the STL files size to 400Mb!

This is probably best explained in the following screenshot examples...

Is there some way I can force these Surface or part-patches to not behave so wildly ... they obviously think they need to be at super super super resolution for some reason 😞

Thanks for your suggestions 🙂

[TrippyLighting]

Is there a chance you can share the design ?

This is hard to evaluate without having access to the model.

[Anonymous]

First issue is to check if the STL file is ASCII or Binary.

I just had an STL file that was 300Mb as text but 45Mb as binary.

I could not upload the ASCII version to Shapeways so I converted to binary and it uploaded fine and the print is on the way.

[Anonymous]

I will upload the Part/File or make Public ASAP.

The STLs I am saving are Binary.

Thank you,

[TrippyLighting]

While that will certainly make a difference  in the file size, it does not explain the stark difference in mesh density between the different objects in the screenshot.

[Anonymous]

I hope this is the right way to Share the Design with you ...
http://a360.co/2hRVyWl

[TrippyLighting]

The likely reason for this is that what looks like a single object are several different surface bodies.

these get evaluated based on their individual size curvature etc. and thus have different densities.

As a model this is a bit of a mess and cannot simply be stitched together as there are huge gaps. I'll see how to address that!

Edit: This model suffers from such a severe lack of precision it'll be a good bit of work to fill all the holes and gaps to either stitch it or use Boundary Fill.

My suggestion would be to try and rebuild this in Fusion 360 with more precision using lofts and surface blends.