Mesh enabler increases file size. Normal?

[Anonymous]

Hi. 

I'm having troubles with my Inventor 2018 and mesh enabler. 

I have stl file that i want to convert to solid and i'm using mesh enabler. The original file size is around 1000kb and after using mesh enabler and saving the same file it is around 20 000kb.. Is this normal?  And even if i press the delete  original it seems that the mesh is still there.. 

[JDMather]

Can you Attach the original stl file here?

If you got a successful solid you might try saving as STEP and opening that - filtering out surface bodies, save and compare.

[imajar]

In my experience, mesh files are much smaller than solid files that with the same outer surfaces, I'm not surprised.  If it is simple enough, and depending on your needs, remodeling it in Inventor could help.

A couple of things are worth mentioning:

Mesh files usually don't contain much information, just the outer surface represented as triangles and usually their normals (which direction is facing out).  But Inventor solid bodies internally have a ton of information.  Aside from mass, internal volume, etc.  Inventor internally computes and organized all the edges, surfaces, vertices, etc, and how they are connected and interrelated, plus appearance information, adaptivity in assemblies, author information, iproperties, etc, etc, etc.  All that information increases file size yes, but also makes a bunch of information readily available when needed.  

If you can remodel the meshed geometry in Inventor as native geomtry, you will probably reduce the filesize somewhat, especially if there are curved surfaces - which mesh cannot efficiently nor accurately represent.  Consider a cylinder:  Mesh would represent it with hundred or thousands of triangles, depending on resolution.  Conversely, Inventor just needs to know a radius and height (a very oversimplified explanation, but you get the idea).

And finally, the mesh enabler does not automatically try to recognize geometry from the mesh.  It straight up converts it.  (but I have noticed that the measure tool and constrain tool have some ability to recognize some features, such as diameters)

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! Yes, I think it is expected. Mesh Enabler converts mesh data to body data. Each mesh vertices, edges, and faces are converted to precise body data.

It sounds like the mesh you imported was already large. Depending on what you are trying to do in Inventor, the tool may not be the right solution. Inventor is a precise modeler. Every piece of geometry has to be measurable and has to carry design intent. Essentially, you want to dimension such geometry. Mesh on the other hand is approximated data, which does not present the precise form of the model.

You may want to use Autodesk Mesh Mixer or Netfabb to manipulate the mesh data.

Many thanks!