Open STL from Solidworks 2012 in Slic3r

[kilhets]

Hi, I have problem with reading STL files exported from Solidworks. SW generate STL with numbers in scientific notation like -1.971277e-016 Maybe this is problem with open. Here is test STL file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/adtniaf4tewmxb6/TEST_SLIC3R.STL Tested in W7 32/64, Ubuntu 12.04 Can someone try to open this file? Thanks

[Itchetiky]

Did you get this error dialog when you opened it?

[image: Inline image 1]

I was able to open and slice your STL file after sending it through cloud.netfabb.com

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 9:17 AM, kilhets notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi, I have problem with reading STL files exported from Solidworks. SW generate STL with numbers in scientific notation like -1.971277e-016 Maybe this is problem with open. Here is test STL file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/adtniaf4tewmxb6/TEST_SLIC3R.STL Tested in W7 32/64, Ubuntu 12.04 Can someone try to open this file? Thanks

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r/issues/912.

[kilhets]

I have not any error dialog. Slic3r come down.

[Itchetiky]

Slic3r come down before or after validating object with cloud.netfabb.com? Performing that check may help in troubleshooting your issue for the developers as the more information they have, the better they can potentially address the core issue.

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 9:57 AM, kilhets notifications@github.com wrote:

I have not any error dialog. Slic3r come down.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r/issues/912#issuecomment-12280261.

[kilhets]

come down before validating, after is OK

[mesheldrake]

You don't always get quality STLs from CAD software. Netfabb does a great job of repairing flawed models. Definitely try repairing your models first if you're having any trouble slicing them.

[alranel]

I tried this yesterday, and Slic3r complains about not being two-manifold, but Netfabb Studio Basic doesn't show any error. I'm leaving this issue open because I want to inspect things to learn something new...

[kefir-]

Using blender, you can enter edit mode and hit Shift-Ctrl-Alt-m to select non manifold edges or vertices. Here's what blender thinks is non manifold.

This is the original STL from the first post, imported into blender without modifications.

Edit: turns out there's some duplicate vertices. I removed them in Blender (w -> remove doubles), and then the file seemed ok. Here's the result:

http://kefirshare.dreamhosters.com/TEST_SLIC3R-removed-doubles.stl

[kilhets]

Thanks to all for your cooperation. I'll try the above procedures. It would be ideal if the slic3r was able to grapple with this form itself :-) Alessandro thanks, if it were necessary, provide further examples.

[alranel]

Ah, duplicate vertices. Thank you @kefir-, that saves my time as I don't need to check anymore. Slic3r requires unique vertices, it's a sane requirement.

[kefir-]

I tested some more, and although blender doesn't find any problems after removing the duplicates, slic3r still complains about a hole. I tried looking at the object, but couldn't find out what was wrong.

[alranel]

@kefir-, the hole error message is triggered by duplicate vertices as well. Both cases are a violation of the two-manifold rule.

[kefir-]

Yes, but I still got it after removing the duplicates. Check out http://kefirshare.dreamhosters.com/TEST_SLIC3R-removed-doubles.stl. I didn't see anything wrong with it, and blender doesn't detect any non-manifoldness, but slic3r says there is a hole.

[mesheldrake]

When I opened your "removed-doubles" file in blender and did the check for non-manifold on it, the same edges came up as non-manifold, and the doubles were still there. So maybe there was a mix-up when you tried to export the fixed version?

I think it's likely this is what happened: You did the STL export of the fixed mesh while still in edit mode, instead of switching back to object mode (TAB) first. Turns out the fixes you make in edit mode don't get exported unless you switch back to object mode first.

By the way, I've found it's good to also do Normals->Recalculate Outside in the mesh menu after removing doubles, because sometimes triangles get flipped to become holes in that operation. (Though that didn't seem necessary in this case.)

[kefir-]

@mesheldrake Yes, I think you diagnosed the problem perfectly... Sorry about that. Removing doubles fixes this part.

[alranel]

@mesheldrake, copied your hint to the https://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r/wiki/better_stl that someday someone will write :)

Closing this issue.

[kefir-]

@alexrj Didn't know about that page, I added some more blender tips as well