Why does prismatic conversion almost never works?

[lkeays]

Hi,

I paid a full license pretty much solely to be able to use prismatic conversion of stl files.  I don't think I have ever been able to convert a single one successfully so far (20+ different models).  Watched tons of videos.  What am I missing?

1. I place, center and set units of measures on stl file
2. I Generate Face groups (fast or accurate - tried both)
3. Convert Mesh, prismatic, and... fails.  Either completely, or I get a weird model.

I mean I get the point that it's it's a cube, it will work, but that's something I can re-make.  I am kind of expecting it to work on complex models - otherwise what's the point?  Or am I doing it wrong?

Original STL

Fast / Accurate Face Groups

Failed result (fast / accurate)

I've attached the stl model.  A

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

[lkeays · Accepted solution]

I will answer myself as I got it to work....  When converting to face groups, using accurate, I change the precision to 10x less.  From 0.001 mm  to 0.01 mm.  It worked.

Edit: at 0.01mm, it still didn't generate a body.  There were "holes" left.  So I tried the face groups again with an accuracy of 0.005 and miracle.  I have a workable body.  Thanks.

[TheCADWhisperer]

Are you editing Face Groups too?

[lkeays]

I wasn't editing them.  

[youngro8]

Same question!! Its a useless feature, has literally never worked for me and also the main reason I decided to subscribe.  I guess its on me for not researching it enough, I'm sure its real function is to just lure people in so I guess its working. 

[TrippyLighting]

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@youngro8 wrote:

I'm sure its real function is to just lure people in so I guess its working. 

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It works on relatively simple prismatic (mechanical) geometry, that was generated by CAD software. Such mesh files still exhibit some form of topology recognizable by these algorithms.

But even then, once a part has many blended fillets, this often fails to produce useful results.

It does not work well with scanned meshes as those do not have any topology.