stl to .sat anyone?

[jj wade]

I desperately need one file converted from .stl to .sat or solidworks.

Can anyone make my day?

much thanks in advance

[Heikki Leivo]

> I desperately need one file converted from .stl to .sat or solidworks.

You can do that in SW2003 (file --> open, files of type --> SAT) , but it
makes no sense in my opinion. STL stores only the tessellation information
of the part, no solid geometry, it is like a screen capture of the part. You
could not edit the model in any way, at least not in SW.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

-h-

[Mark Mossberg]

JJ,

I can convert it in Iron CAD, but as Heikki said, it will be a faceted
approximation with no geometric information (arcs, lines, etc.). It's just a
bunch of triangular faces.

Regards

Mark

"jj wade" <jaka...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:tglx9.180$ar4.95387@sccrnsc03...

[Iain McMillan]

Sorry can you confirmthat for me, are you saying IronCAD will convert a STL
format into a SAT format?
Or do we have crossed wires and you can convert a SAT to a STL?

Regards
Iain:-)

>JJ,
>
>I can convert it in Iron CAD, but as Heikki said, it will be a faceted
>approximation with no geometric information (arcs, lines, etc.). It's just a
>bunch of triangular faces.
>
>Regards
>
>Mark
>
>"jj wade" <jaka...@hotmail.com> wrote in message

[Heikki Leivo]

> Sorry can you confirmthat for me, are you saying IronCAD will convert a
STL
> format into a SAT format?
> Or do we have crossed wires and you can convert a SAT to a STL?

In SW2003 you can convert STL to SAT as well, but I don't know what the SAT
file will contain after the operation. If you try to open it back to SW, it
tells that the file contains no solid bodies and you get actually nothing
back.

-h-

[Mark Mossberg]

lian,

Iron Cad will read an STL in as a valid faceted solid. From there you can
convert it to either Parasolid, or SAT to read into SW or whatever. Both
Parasolid and ACIS support faceted solids. SW has just chosen not to support
this capability directly.

SW2003 will read an STL file directly, but treats it as a "graphics object".
These objects are totally dead and can't be modified in any way, at least
with Beta 3 which was the last time I used this function.

Either way, STL is a very poor choice for import/export if the model is
intended to convey mathematical features and accuracy.

I'm not an Iron Cad user (way to goofy for me). I just keep an older version
around for translation purposes.

Regards

Mark

"Iain McMillan" <GiO.TmSc...@mech.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote in message
news:aq51lr$612$1...@cantuc.canterbury.ac.nz...

[Thilo Trautwein]

Heikki,

SW2003 can import a STL-file and create a volume from it with no
problem (besides being pretty slow), just set the proper option when
opening the file. I can cut holes in the volume, fillet edges or do
whatever I want with them.
It can also export the file as SAT and reimport it with no problem. So
whatever JJ is trying to do, he should be able to do it with SW2003
(Beta3 tested).

Thilo

--
SolidWorks Productivity Tools & Freeware:
http://www.ecocom.com

[Johnny Geling remove: _removethis_]

Try Magics RP from Materialise (www.materialise.com). A new version will
be released soon (deadline = Euromold) which would recognise parts and
features as was told to me last week.

Johnny

[Cliff Huprich]

In article <Chpx9.1794$eo4.10...@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com>, "Mark
Mossberg" <mark...@pacbell.net> writes:

>Either way, STL is a very poor choice for import/export if the model is
>intended to convey mathematical features and accuracy.

The error introduced is about the same as the polygon size.
Use 2 mm polygons, it's no more accurate than 2 mm.

ANY kind of conversion to another format will still contain this
error (limit).

Not to mention the huge dataset size. Think of a 10 M X 10 M
NURBS surface represented as 2 mm X 2 mm polygons <G>.
Nor can you easily manipulate/edit/change it. And once you do
getting back te original shape if needed ....

IMHO <G>.
--
Cliff Huprich

[Ricky Jordan]

When you go to open an STL file in SolidWorks 2003, click the options
button and go the STL topic. It gives you the choice to import STL
files as Graphics Data, Surface Data, or Solid Data. After opening
the file as a solid you can perform some basic modeling operations. I
havn't tried too much except a couple of cuts and extrudes. As Mark
has said, STL files in general are hard to work with due to its all
triangle makeup.

Hope this helps,

Ricky Jordan
CSWP
Dynetics, Inc.
Huntsville, AL

"Mark Mossberg" <mark...@pacbell.net> wrote in message news:<Chpx9.1794$eo4.10...@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com>...

[Scott Nelson]

Hi,

Everyone here is right - there are lots of ways to convert an stl to a
solid or surface model but - if successfull - it will just be a solid
version of the tessalated stl file - ie faceted.

There is software that will 'actually' convert the stl to nurb surfaces or
solids by using the stl nodes as control spheres to create a nurbs surface.

http://www.sibcoinc.com/software.htm

Check this link and look under Brock Rooney. There are other tools you can
use - I forget the names right now - some of them are very high end price
wise. The Rooney stuff works fine though.

Scottn

"jj wade" <jaka...@hotmail.com> wrote in news:tglx9.180$ar4.95387
@sccrnsc03:

[Cliff Huprich]

In article <3dc6a94b$0$5254$45be...@newscene.com>, Scott Nelson
<nom...@nomail.com> writes:

>There is software that will 'actually' convert the stl to nurb surfaces or
>solids by using the stl nodes as control spheres to create a nurbs surface.

A) Create some swoopy surfaces.
B) Export then as STL data.
C) Import the STL data (you choose how) as surfaces.

D) Compare the original with the imported.
E) Do some curvature analysis.

F) Try this with various settings & surfaces. Even a tilted plane might
get interesting <g>.

G) What did you find out?

BTW, What happened to system speed & file size?
--
Cliff Huprich