How to merge multiple faces on a solid body surface into a single face?

[DScott100]

Hello Inventor Community, 

I've searched the forum and cannot find a solution to this problem.  I've also searched the commands within Inventor and Fusion360, no luck.

Is there a way to merge multiple faces of a solid body surface into a single face?  I am starting with an imported model (that I have manipulated and imported from a laser scan.stl file) and want to work with a single outer face as I progress the design forward.

Any help/guidance would be appreciated.

.ipt file attached.

Thanks

Digby Scott CEng

[TheCADWhisperer]

Why do you want to do this?

[DScott100]

For simplicity. 

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

Set to Shaded visual style rather than Shaded with Edges.

A single surface organic shape is not simple by any definition.

[PaulMunford]

An STL file is a mesh. Inventor deals with solids amd surfaces. Inventor 2017 has some tools to extract prismatic shapes from mesh surfaces. You can then trim and stitch these surfaces back together to get a solid.

Is that any help?

[Steven_Gao]

Yes, it's nearly hard to merge the irregular faces into one face.

[DScott100]

Thanks for the advice.  No doubt organic shapes are complicated and also very challenging to model accurately.  I can work with the multiple faces, not a problem, just thought it may be easer and a little quicker with the work-flow to reduce the number of them.