I'm wondering if anyone has seen this behavior in AD. I imported an STL file into Rhino, and saved it as a v6 3dm file, then tried to open it in AD. AD crunched for a few seconds, and the progress bar went about 1/4 of the way, then AD just closed. No error messages, nothing - just closed. Anyone seen this before?
What I'm ultimately trying to do is be able to get an STL file generated for 3D printing into AD to manipulate it further. I know AD doesn't import STL, but I'm wondering if anyone has come up with a conversion path or workaround to allow this to happen?
There are paid software out there, but without shovelling money anywhere, you may want to take a look at FreeCAD. I have done a few conversions and it can work pretty well, but it can also fail miserably. The big challenge has been to get Alibre open step files exported from FreeCAD. Other software has opened those just fine, but not Alibre. Now that the importer module is updated, it may work better though.
Me too. There's no indication of whether it's a memory issue or what. The error message is not helpful.
All too common. I realize that there are probably from 10 to 50 possible causes for many errors, but if someone can work on an error message format that gives a list of "possibles" or areas to look at, or at least a link to such a list, that would be good. Unfortunately, most of the present error messages appear to be more directed toward programmers than users, intended for debugging as opposed to helping. Many probably come directly out of ACIS. I keep repeating this because I think the error message issue puts many off. "User-friendly" is a big deal, and the more help that can be given to fix "exceptions", the better. I honestly think this could be a great point in favor of Alibre, well worth an attempt at least.
I'd suggest using Rhino as a "bridge" between file formats and CAD programs. The free download will allow for something like 20 saves in a multitude of file formats. Its a great free download (unless its changed recently) which really makes buying the actual licensed program very, very tempting... Hmm...
Stl's of large organic shapes result in large organic step/3dm/igs files. I had a file some years back that was like this and AD couldn't import it. Max's suggestion at the time was to divide the converted file into many smaller files and import those. Worked.
3 times out of 4 I got no error message - just shut down. The 4th time resulted in an error message that just said something like "an error occurred", as pointed out, not very useful. In Rhino, I've tried converting the STL to 3dm, igs, stp, Parasolid, etc. All no go. In some cases the error was "no faces to stitch".
I did not create it. It was a third party design of a part from Thingverse. I don't know what it was created with - should that matter? Rhino and VisualCADCAM load it (the STL) with no errors, but I can't get anything to output a conversion that will successfully load into AD.
Hello tk1247, it was only if you might have the option to change the creation process of the stl. Regards Stefan
bigseb, This is only a single part, not an assembly. I'm not an STL expert - how does one divide the converted file into many smaller files that can be imported by AD?
The geometry of the organic shape could be such that there is too much info for AD too handle. Splitting the file into smaller files can help.
I understand.....but how do I do that? Slice it up and reassemble it in AD? I'm also puzzled why AD just quits trying without a single word or message. Also, I've brought far more complex files into AD than this with no problems.
