Proposed Utility to Tame a Giant .stl
posted in Community by
globemaker
Abstract
The software is called STL Specimen Extractor. This may be useful for you because it takes any giant .stl file and it produces a smaller .stl file as a specimen file of the 3D shape. This Extractor will not crash your computer when it opens a vast 3D model file. It is not part of your CAD software. It is a stand alone C# program using a Windows GUI. It does not store the whole giant file in RAM, it reads bytes from the hard drive and stores a small amount in the system RAM on your computer, so it will not slow down the system much.
Details
STL Specimen Extractor has two modes: blur and focus. For Focus Mode the user can select an xyz volume in which the small file will have triangles. Any triangles outside of the small volume are not put in the new, small .stl file. For example, my 386 Megabyte Valles Marineris model has 8 million triangles for that canyon on Mars. The STL Specimen Extractor can produce a 7 Megabytes file for a small part of Valles with 130,000 triangles.
In Blur Mode, the whole model has most points deleted, leaving only a few extended triangles from all regions that had details.
Here is a link to a giant .stl file for Valles Marineris on Mars:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bye97v1hDDEzTzdYVGVlTWh4ZlU/edit?usp=sharing
Question
Do you find this capability to be useful? Are there improvements? Is $10 OK?
9 years, 7 months ago
When all's said and done though, is there, or will there ever be, a 3D printer capable of printing an 8 Million triangle shape? Surely, it's a matter of decimating to match the resolution of the printer. Isn't it? Or have I miss the point?
GlobeMaker answered: Yes. I used 2 Million ten years ago. But I did not create the 8 Million shape so it can be printed on all printers. I hoped that it would be cut in pieces and printed. I hoped it would be blurred into 400,000 triangles and re-worked. I hoped it would be a basiis for a virtual reality planet.
In addition, many sources of .stl files may provide vast file sizes, but home 3D printers want to make a simple version. Since you say there is already a tool to do this in Meshlab, I will look into that decimator.
elpulpo continued: "Surely, it's a matter of decimating to match the resolution of the printer. Isn't it?"
GM: Sometimes, yes. A blurred version is sometimes good. But for other cases, a Focus Function for the STL Specimen Extractor will not decimate, it will grab a detailed sector of the volume, without the whole object. That would be done without loading the whole object. Maybe some CAD tools crash when a vast 3D .stl file is loaded. A pre-processing program that I propose cuts the file down before it is loaded.
Loading up 8 million triangles into the RAM for use by the software is a difficult job anyway and might not be a limitation on the software. I read somewhere ages ago that stl's are quite large when uncompressed and being used by software.
I can't remember if Meshlab comes with 64bit support or not, if it's still lurking in the dark ages of 32bit support then I would suggest looking for a 64bit version, it's open source enough that someone has probably taken it upon themselves to port it.
Agree with you about Big Data but I guess the thing is, how long will it be perceived as big? Not long ago, 64 Gig was though of as big. Now you can buy a 64G SD card in a supermarket. When HD TV's were being touted, the only folk who knew about 4K were in the movie industry. My point is that data is getting bigger anyway. You're just 5 minutes ahead of the curve! :-D
My computer is 5 years old an ACER athalon II 3.10 cpu and 4 gigs - works fine to view stls , do emails and spreedsheets- do we need all new computers ?
4K is passe - 16K is coming in 2015 by sony - - but don't fret - no one can physically see past 4k - which is Movie theater quality.
Product: Pre-Processor for .stl Files
Summary: This is "Not A Viewer" for .stl Files
The STL Pre-Processor uses a Windows GUI so a designer can get some information about .stl files of up to 50 Million Triangles without starting a CAD system. The program uses under 50 kilobytes of RAM for data, so it will not get crashed by a vast .stl file that is being examined. The product does not show .stl images. It is a text program without 3D simulation graphics. Its purpose is to take a giant .stl file and make a small .stl file that is similar to the whole, or that is focused on one piece of the whole structure. The Pre-Processor reports statistics about the big .stl file, for files up to 2.4 Gigabytes.
Product Justification for $10 Price
The future will bring many free .stl files that 3D printer enthusiasts can download. The Pre-Processor has an automatic update feature using the Microsoft .NET infrastructure. The C# programming language is used and the source code is openly provided, so you can add features. The automatic updates will add modern features as the future unfolds. Home 3D print enthusiasts may find this Pre-Processor useful so their small computers and printers can tap into the big time .stl files. Detailed geographical and anatomical models use Big Data. This software opens up Big Data for small printer installations.
List of Featured Proposed for the STL Pre-Processor
1 Reduce the file size by decimation and write new .stl file
2 Provide "Radial Decimation" so details are finer at one area
3 Reduce the file size by writing a new .stl with only a small piece.
4 Provide Histograms of x y z values
5 Provide Histograms of triangle sizes
6 Fracture big .stl files to make 10 small stl files
7 Menus to focus on a small volume for reports
8 Report entropy of a region
9 Fourier Transforms in up to 3 dimensions
10 Recommends decimation limits from a Fourier spectrum
11 Design Rule Checker
12 Sanity Check Report
13 Report where in space most facets exist, where is it empty
14 Report on facet normals: histogram of values
15 Raster Detector reports array structure, if any
16 Present the 80 byte header text from each .stl fil
Release Plans
The Pre-Processor will be released in stages so easy functions are available first and then advanced features will become available later. Some features are designed to be useful for making maps and globes. The "Radial Decimation" is planned for radial geography, like a volcanic island. The center of the island will have small triangles and the shores will have longer triangles. If no interest is found in the public, then the program will be kept privately by a globemaker, Alan Folmsbee. August 25, 2014.