Hello All,
I am looking for advice on creating multi-facted gemstones in SW 2004. I once saw a tutorial that made short order of this, but a search has resulted in nothing. A "feature table" driven macro would be most helpful as I need to generate a number of these models. If you are familiar with Lightwave 3D, there is a tool that automatically generates gemstones based on numeric values entered. This would be ideal. All help is greatly appreciated.
Mike T.
Mike,
Yeah, well, I can only suggest using Rhino3D, they have some gem addins (scripts) for creating a faceted surface model, then import them into SW via parasolid, step, iges,.. Or, if you have LW and that plugin, you could also use import the mesh model (VRML or STL) and convert it into a faceted surface model in SW.
..
Mike Tripoli wrote:
Several models in various 3D formats (no SW...) on
Hello Paul,
Thank you for the response. I have the model as an STL file, but do not kow what you mean by "convert it into a faceted surface model in SW". When I load the STL in SW, it comes in as an "STL Graphic" and I can do nothing to it or with it. Your further advice is welcomed.
Mike T.
Mike,
When opening the STL/VRML, you have a "Options" (import options) tab at the bottom right of the dialog box. Then, "Import as" (the default is "Graphics Body"), change it to "Solid Body" or "Surface Body" depending on what you are doing with the data. Also, you have a choice of units, export mm > import mm. (note, STL's will move the object into the positive coordinate space so you may loose your origin if the object is centered at the 0,0,0 or if it was created in a negative coordinate location.
The issue with this is that the STL/VRML meshes are triangulated so planar surfaces will be split up with triangles. SW can not simplify those split faces into a unsplit planar faces.
The reason I suggest Rhino3D is because you can simplify the faces into single faces and then convert them into surfaces "MeshToNurb" before exporting to parasolid, step, iges.. So, if it is a LightWave *.lwo or Wavefront *.obj, it most likely has faces which are not triangulated, so when you import them into Rhino3D, they will most likely not be triangulated as well..
Beside the mesh files Philippe suggested, there are also Rh>
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