[Gmsh] Modification of .stl file

[Dmitrijs Ledkovs]

Heya

iges, step and brep represent exact geometry which is not available in
stl (stl is a mesh of a geometry) there some packages which can trace
and give approximate geometry back from stl. But as far as I know they
are expensive. (load up stl, go to options and untick everything in
mesh and tick everything in geometry and you will notice there isn't
anything)

Have you tried MeshLab? It is open-source package for working with
meshes. It can import stl and it can touch up meshes hopefully it will
be able to make holes. But make sure that in the end you still have
closed -surface / closed-volumes.

Other approach would be to try blender (it can import stl) and to try
to do binary operations with other meshes in there, eg. difference
with a cylinder.

ps. from one dimitri to another ;-)

2009/6/15 Dimitrios Eftaxiopoulos <eftaxiop at central.ntua.gr>:
> Hello,
> I have an .stl (or .vtk or .vtp) closed surface file and I have successfully
> meshed the volume of it, in a variety of ways, using gmsh. Now I want to
> create circular cylindrical holes on it. To the best of my knowledge, this is
> not possible in a straightforward manner, due to the limitations of
> information included in the .stl file (just surface triangles). I tried to
> drill a simple cube.stl surface using gmsh, at no success.
>
> Most probably I have to convert the .stl file to another cad file format, like
> the open formats .iges, .step or .brep and open the holes on this file, using a
> cad package. I have tried FreeCAD, but the conversion to .brep results in an
> empty file.
>
> Can anyone suggest a way and a tool for modifying an .stl file?
>
> Regards
> Dimitris
>
>
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-- 
With best regards


Dmitrijs Ledkovs (for short Dima),
Ледков Дмитрий Юрьевич