STL export

[pdussart]

Dear,

Is STL export available with Zephyr free ? The help text and the features comparison between version is not clear about this.

Regards, Philippe

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi Philippe,

3DF Zephyr Free exports only textured meshes.

As such, the STL export is not available, as STL is a format that does not support texturing. You can find the STL file format export when exporting a non-textured mesh in 3DF Zephyr lite or the full 3DF Zephyr version.

So unfortunatley no, you can not directly export your textured mesh in stl format. You can however, export a textured mesh from 3DF Zephyr Free and convert it to STL with third party software such as blender.

[pdussart]

Andrea,

Thanks for your advice. I will first test the output of 3DF Zephyr free with Fusion 360 for .OBJ to .STL conversion
I am working on some technical models, combining complex volumes (ideally generated from pictures) and 3D CAD precision for other parts.

Regards, Philippe

[pdussart]

Andrea,

just to say that the export of .OBJ file worked fine in all my tests and the import into Fusion 360 happens without problem.

It took me some time to use Zephyr properly, here are some remarks:.

1 I find difficult to predict the size of the OBJ file produced by Zephyr There is an option to limit to 200MB or 500MB the output size. In practice, the exported file is much smaller that this limit.
2 if you have defined a successful process, it might be useful to store it as a Macro and to be able to reproduce the process for other models.
3 it would be useful to be able to give a name and store "custom" set-ups
3 Assuming this Macro is sucessful, I would love to have a single screen able to adjust any parameter used in the macro with an evaluation of the size of the modified output file

Thanks again, Philippe

[cam3d]

Hi pdussart - Here are my comments on your remarks:

- Assuming are creating a textured OBJ there are two parts which contribute to the overall size of the file, the mesh itself, and the texture file. The texture file will always vary in size if it's .JPEG (lossy compression). The OBJ mesh will stay consistent, so setting your target poly-count is a good way to regulate your file size (Tools>MeshFilters> Decimation/Densification).

- The 50/100/200/500mb limitation is only available when uploading to Sketchfab, and applies an upper limit and will not increase your file size to the set value.

- XML files can be used to create presets for different stages of processing, these presets can be used in Lite & Full (Utilities>PresetManager)?

- We have a batching tool in the Full version of Zephyr using XML files. (Utilities>BatchProcessing)? https://www.3dflow.net/zephyr-doc/en...rocessing.html

I hope this was informative!

[pdussart]

Dear all,

in the end I realize that OBJ is a better option, as textures do help to get better printing results, provided that your printer understand OBJ files.
Cheap printers do not.
But if you use professional printing services as I do, I notice that sending OBJ files to these companies delivers better results than STL
Thanks 3DFlow and Zephyr for OBJ files, this is the right choice.for me

Regards, Philippe