Comments on: SHM STL Tools

By: Darrick Roberts

Darrick Roberts — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:58:01 +0000

USER ERROR: Spatial Relationship Between Individual Objects.

My apologizes Sir! I did not realize that objects for an STL import MUST fully reside on all positive axis!

(At least for Autocad)

Now it works Perfectly! Awesome, Thank You so much!

I’m really excited to take some solid models out of Autocad and into Lightwave, with just some minimal tri to quad cleanup.

Thanks Again!

By: Darrick Roberts

Darrick Roberts — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:12:30 +0000

Thank For all of your hard work, and for providing these plug ins for free!

For feedback, I have an issue to report with Autocad 2010.

An example scenario is as follows:

In a single Autocad scene I have two boxes, one touching the edge of the other and wish to import each box into a single Modeler Scene so that each box is a seperate mesh inside of Lightwave.

However, when importing each box (one after the other) into a single Modeler Scene, the boxes do not maintain the same spatial relationship they had in Autocad.

Box 1 imports into the scene with a certain origin, then Box 2 is imported with seemingly it’s own origin, and they are no longer in alignment.

One could imagine how difficult it would be to import a scene where timbers, bolts, fittings, brackets, etc. were a single unified mesh.

Sure, everything would be in alignment then, but You’d have to manually select each piece and separate them out.

I’ve seen apps such as Blender maintain those relationships, and as such its the only critique I have to make.

Its wonderful to have the ability right inside of Lightwave, and again I applaud you for all of your hard work. Coding is a beast that quickly slayed my ambition. So to anyone who can succeed my hat is off.

Thanks again,

Darrick.

By: Mike Werner

Mike Werner — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:36:03 +0000

Just tried your Lightwave stl import script. Worked fine. Will save me some time. Previously I used Deep Exploration to convert stl’s to Lightwave. Thanks for making it available to the public. I work for an aerospace firm where we get lots of CAD models in stp format from other companies. I use Solid Works to convert them to stl.

By: Joe Weems

Joe Weems — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:33:23 +0000

I have downloaded the script and unzipped it, I have no idea what folder to put it in. I work for the U.S. Army and we want to try and create some training devices, so I would really like to try it. If you could please give me some guidence as to which folder I should put it in. Thank you.

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 12:13:49 +0000

Actually, that problem happens because the coordinate system changes handedness. LW’s set up so that Y is vertical and Z is depth, but in STL files the opposite is true. So when I load my model into VisCAM View to check for watertightness, it’s nose is pointing heavenward and the left & right details are on the wrong sides.

Love these plugins, by the way. They’ve opened up a whole new client base for me!

By: GR

GR — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 01:01:51 +0000

Thanks for this pluggin it seem great. will you be working on this pluggin still. its a great plugging to export from Cad and bring them in to lightwave. now i just need a point ploy redution tool woth it.

By: Sean Hyde-Moyer

Sean Hyde-Moyer — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 04:00:06 +0000

Thanks Gerry.

Not sure if it was a bug, or if there is some CAD/CAM software that’s using a different coordinate space. I know there are lots of people using the script, so it’s odd it’s taken this long to surface. Maybe the behavior is different on the Mac.

Anyway, download the new script, and keep the “Fix Inverted” checkbox checked, and everything should work.

I tested it in a couple of viewers, including MeshCAM, so you should be good to go.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 01:11:01 +0000

Here’s a screenshot showing what I’m talking about. Changing the view didn’t have any effect.
http://home.comcast.net/~cncwoodworker/LW-MeshCAM.jpg

It’s a homebuilt router that I haven’t had time to finish up. You might want to check out cnczone.com for a lot of cool inexpensive, homebuilt cnc routers.

By: Sean Hyde-Moyer

Sean Hyde-Moyer — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 02:16:17 +0000

Hi Gerry.

I think the problem lies in the standard layout for LW. Try this: change the standard X/Y view in Modeler from “back” to “front”, you should now get the same results in Modeler that you do in MeshCAM.

Let me know if this solves your problem.

What kind of router are you using?

By: Gerry

Gerry — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 02:03:24 +0000

I tried your .stl exporter, and found that it seems to be mirroring the object. For instance, beveled text ends up with the bevel on the back side of the text. Stretch one side of an object, and the .stl is stretched on the other side. I’m importing the .stl’s into MeshCAM to create g-code for a CNC router. http://www.meshcam.com

Cool tool if you could sort this out. Thanks.

Gerry