STL to autocad solid converter

Anyone know of a good STL to Autocad solid converter?

I have a old drawing that the original file got corrupted but I still have a STL model of.

Thanks

You could try this one: http://www.automapki.com/products/automesher-application.html. There is an evaluation version that's good for 5 days.

Here's another one: http://www.sycode.com/products/stl_import_ac/index.htm

Thanks. Ill give it a try and let you know how it works.

Downloaded both. Neither converts stl to solid. Just allows importation and exportation of mesh.

Can you use the Autocad command CONVTOSOLID to convert the imported meshes to solids?

Solidworks might do it if not too complicated, Inventor might also. AFAIK STL is a surface.

STL files describe only the surface geometry of a three dimensional object without any representation of color, texture or other common CAD model attributes.

An STL file describes a raw unstructured triangulated surface by the unit normal and vertices (ordered by the right-hand rule) of the triangles using a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

I have a IGES file or STEP too. Not sure which. But have never had any luck converting those in Autocad. I have inventor but am not good at it. How would I go about dping this in inventor.

convtosolid dosent work.

Been awhile since I used Inventor, but I think you just import the STEP or IGES then export to an ACIS (.sat) which can be imported into AutoCAD.

The FREE Autodesk Inventor Fusion Technology Preview will do this, also.

Is SAT a solid? Its Ascii isnt it?

I have inventor 2010.

You should be able to open ACIS (*.sat) or STEP (*.stp) directly in Mechanical if you are really running Mechanical

ACISIN command

or

STEPIN command

these file formats are the way to go rather than stl as stl is coarsely faceted surfaces.

IGES (*.igs) can be surface or solid.

you can also open these in Inventor or FREE Inventor Fusion http://labs.autodesk.com

In Inventor Fusion you can save directly to dwg

In Inventor 2010 it is something like (my memory fading) AEC Exchange>Save as dwg solid.

Is SAT a solid? Its Ascii isnt it?

A file can be saved in machine readable format (binary) or in human readable format (ASCII). It can be solid or surface.

Binary files are smaller than ASCII files.

Yes, Mechanical will import the sat and iges. However they are just surfaces and wont convert to solid.

The problem is getting the models back to solid so they can be edited.

This one I already just redrew. But that was 2 days of hard work. Id really like to find a better way of doing this.

Sounds like they were never saved as a solid.

I would suggest getting Inventor/Solidworks and some training/tutorials/practice if this is common place.

However they are just surfaces and wont convert to solid.

The problem is getting the models back to solid so they can be edited.

In Inventor or later versions of vanilla AutoCAD run the Sculpt command. (that is the icon name - I don't know what the AutoCAD command line commad is - something like surfsculpt).

Convert to solid (whatever the actual command is) might also work in vanilla AutoCAD.

AutoCAD Mechanical can be run as vanilla AutoCAD.

I heard of sculpt but I dont have it on 2010. Ill download 2013 and see how it works.

SLW210 I have thousands of models of parts that I made for decades. Some were in IGES and some sent to customers as STL.

No matter how hard you try some files just get corrupted and cant be opened so I go looking for the backups.

I get customers that I made molds 20 years ago call and expect me to have the files....

This day and age you dont want to turn down the jobs.

Send me the .stl file. I will try to convert to solid - paulopintovsc@hotmail.com