I'm sure I'm missing something dumb. STLs generated from here: https://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/
I've had 3 work as expected by remixing the needed side and inlaying the text by following this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXt6grv2AeY
However, I have one STL that has blue vertical lines. No matter what I do I cannot seem to get it to remix and allow proper inlay of text. I've even re-created it multiple times from said site.
I'm essentially trying to make something like this for my father: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:226414
I'm attached a screenshot of what I'm dealing with, any help would be appreciated! I'll admit I'm a super-noob to 3d design.
Thanks,
Dan
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by MagWeb. Go to Solution.
I believe those blue lines are open boundaries. Gaps/holes/cracks in the mesh. It is not 'water tight'.
Try:
A) Edit>Close Cracks
or B) Analyze>Inspector>Auto Repair All
or C) Edit>Separate Shells, Delete the noisy shells, Analyze>Inspector>Auto Repair All
or D) Edit > Make Solid
Or any combinations of the above.
Thanks for the ideas! Just tried them all:
A) Appears to have done nothing.
B) Jacked the model all up. See pic.
C) Crashed Meshmixer
D) Jacked up the model. See pic.
I went ahead and attached the STL. Guess I can't attach an STL. I'm not looking for someone to fix it though, I really want to understand what needs done so I can deal with it myself going forward. Thanks!!!
I tried several files from that source.
It's hard to repair these cracks in MM.
The most promising way is 😧 MakeSolid. Here it worked for all source files I tried.
Maybe you need to set a higher SolidAccuracy and MeshDensity.
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Basically a STL file is a soup of loose triangles. They get welded to a mesh on import in a certain application. To do this two triangles to be welded on a common edge need to come with the very same vertex coordinates on the common vertices.
E.g.: If there's a triangle A>B>C and a triangle B>C>D both are welded on the edge B>C.
Now if there's a small error and there is A>B>C and (B+some error)>(C+some error)>D you can't weld both triangles any more (as "+some error" means you have a different point).
The easiest free way I know to fix this is to use Meshlab.
-Load the source file
-Run Filters>CleaningAndRepairing>MergeCloseVertices and hit Apply in the filter dialog (defaults should work. The dialog stays open after applying-don't worry).
-Export the result
MM should not show any cracks loading that result (hopefully).
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To upload a STL mesh here: Post a zipped file
Gunter Weber
Triangle Artisan
Really appreciate the detailed explanation, that helps me understand. Your suggestion of using Meshlab worked perfectly. Thanks so much for your assistance!
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