

However, FreeCAD's process is so inefficient that a 22 MB STEP file outputs as a 366 MB STL file after two minutes of conversion. Our conversion tool of choice is FreeCAD because it’s free, relatively simple to use, and does a good job of converting STL files to usable solid models. For FreeCAD, the code goes as follows: Part.open (fileNameFrom) STEP File on server Mesh.export ( FreeCAD.getDocument ('Unnamed').findObjects (), fileNameOut) STL file on server. That being said, if you have no other option, it’s definitely worth a shot! Step 1: Download a Conversion Tool Our conversion tool of choice is FreeCAD because it’s free, relatively simple to use, and does a good job of converting. If your STL file is of the second type, you won't be able to convert it. stl file to a file that you can mill on the the milling machine.
#USING FREECAD TO CONVERT FROM STP TO STL FULL#
Others are extremely complex, full of holes and self-intersections, and will cause the conversion application to crash. Some of them are low-complexity, watertight, and can be easily converted. Unfortunately, FreeCAD does not support importing this. The last part of this assignment is to convert. Using FreeCAD Python console and help from people on this forum, I was able to do that.

Or maybe you're already doing solid modeling, but you need to incorporate an STL model into it. This guide shows you a file conversion process that has worked well for me.ĭisclaimer: STL files span a wide range. Recently I have been working on an assignment to convert five file formats (.dae.

6 years ago README. 7 years ago local.xml Explicitely require python before version 3. 7 years ago freecadconvert.py Support conversion from Mesh to parametric shape formats stp,brp,igs.
#USING FREECAD TO CONVERT FROM STP TO STL UPDATE#
Ideally you'd begin with a solid model and avoid STLs entirely, but maybe you found the perfect object on Thingiverse or you used a 3D scanner, and there’s no reasonable way to begin with a solid model. 6 years ago archives.db Update feed XML to v0.2 (support mesh->parametric conversion). The most universal solid model format is STEP (.stp. This guide shows you the basics of converting an STL file to a STEP file. STL files are a 3D mesh format mostly used by 3D printers, but in the world of engineering CAD and CAM, most software requires solid models. 1 Answer Sorted by: 14 Here's a quick bit of code to start out: import FreeCAD import Part import Mesh shape Part.Shape () shape.read ('myshape.step') doc App.newDocument ('Doc') pf doc.addObject ('Part::Feature','MyShape') pf.Shape shape Mesh.export ( pf, 'myshape.stl') FreeCAD uses python extensively for user-facing functions.
