Any good way to convert an .stl file to something Alibre can process?

[srjacob]

Any good way to convert an .stl file to something Alibre can process?

 

[simonb65]

There are a few articles on converting STL to STEP, which you could then open and modify with Alibre. Have a look at ...

https://grabcad.com/tutorials/how-to-convert-stl-to-step-using-freecad

... not sure what the results are like, but it might get you started!

 

[dwc]

This has been discussed innumerable times here on the forum. Try the search function "convert stl" for example.

 

[DavidJ]

Mostly the results will not be great.

Going from 3D geometry (for example STEP) to STL is easy, but loses information. Going back in the other direction is complex - many conversions just replicate the facetted STL as a STEP - giving huge file size compared to the original CAD definition. So the result is unwieldy and difficult to edit.

A few systems try to re-create a proper CAD definition of the original geometry.

 

[JimCad]

Freecad can work depending on the STL in my experience.
For a model created in CAD and saved as STL it seems to work much better than an STL from a 3D scan.
Only used it a couple of times though.
Jim

 

[Ken226]

I use Nates script.

Script Release: STL Import

This script uses the open source stltostp to convert the STL file to an STP file and then optionally import it into Alibre. You must download and install stltostp before running. https://github.com/slugdev/stltostp If you installed stltostp but the script can't find it then you will need to...

www.alibre.com

Install the open source command line stl to step converter from github first:

GitHub - slugdev/stltostp: Convert stl files to STEP brep files

Convert stl files to STEP brep files. Contribute to slugdev/stltostp development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Then the script will work.