Printable View
Hello. I am new to 3D printing and I need to convert this STEP file that I got online into an STL file so I can print it. It's a 3D model of a positioner that I am trying to test the fitting on my setup. I tried to use FreeCAD but the surface and knobs got a little rough. How can I do that?
That's an impressively complex assembly. Your best shot would be to sign up for the free hobbyist license of Fusion 360. I am able to load the .STEP file into F360. It should be a reasonably straighforward task to strip away each component and export as STL. I won't say it's going to be easy, just a simple set of steps to accomplish the goal.
I say that, but as a test, I turned off all 97 bodies and turned them on one at a time. There are quite a few of them that are composed of zero thickness surfaces. This means you'll have to close open areas to create a solid that can be used for 3D printing. It's certainly possible that the creator of the model did not intend to print this and perhaps to use only as a visual aid.
In the attached images, you can see body01 is an outer cylinder and a top and bottom circle/ring. None of these objects have thickness, but could be corrected by creating another cylinder to join the upper and lower rings. Body06 is similar in that all of the cylinders and rings and truncated cones are single surface - zero thickness.
I was going to attempt an export, but the correction of the surfaces is beyond my comfort level.
Good luck.
That sounds like a lot of work... Isn't it possible to close the outer surface automatically somehow? It doesn't have to be perfect, it's just for a test fit in my setup.Quote:
Originally Posted by fred_dot_u
It's not just one surface, it's many (possibly all) of the components in the design.
"That sounds like a lot of work..." is an accurate statement.