Just another tech blag
We’ll be using Microsoft 3D builder for this conversion. Its a simple use of the tool but it works out well. Just open your .3mf file in Microsoft 3D builder, and save it back out as an STL. I’ve found this to be the easiest way as its all free software provided by MS.
It’s no simpler than opening the file in 3d builder, clicking save as, and saving it out as a new file type.
Another day, another type of data to import into CATIA. This time is the classic SVG format used by LightBurn and often edited with InkScape. This is pretty quick but I wanted a bunch of screenshots to make it easy to follow.
Continue reading “Getting SVG Data into CATIA”Catia is my CAD of choice for most things, mostly because it’s what I know best. It however doesn’t have great support for STL files. We’ll be using FreeCAD to convert them to STEP files which Catia supports well. First we want to open our STL file with FreeCAD.
Continue reading “Converting STL to STEP”I’ve had an 8 key macro pad on my desk for a while now and haven’t been making very good use of it. Since I’ve been doing a bit more CAD work, why not setup some macros for CATIA.
Continue reading “Catia V5 Shortcut Keys”This is just a showcase of some of the CAD designs I’ve made for various projects. I’ve made some functional enclosures as well as some pieces to hold art. Most of these are 100% designed by me, but the EspDeck case I used a few designs from Thingiverse as sources, and merged them together in a way that best suited my end goal.
Continue reading “Various CAD Designs”
CATIA is pretty good at times at hiding options, so here we’ll find out how to increase the export accuracy of STL files from CATIA. The defaults used give some pretty rough models especially around curves, so we’ll be increasing the accuracy to get smoother models to use on our 3d printer.
Continue reading “Improve CATIA STL Output Accuracy”
I found an online fractal generator that creates PNG images of the fractals it generates. I wanted to make use of them in my laser cutting. To do this, I have two options, grab the JS and rework it to generate SVG files, or I can trace the images in CATIA and export SVG files for use. I decided to do the latter for a few fractals to use in some laser cutting.
Continue reading “Tracing Images in Catia”I’ve been trying to come up with a way to handle storing and version controlling my 3D models (both from thingiverse, and models I create myself), however i ran into quite a few deadends when looking for software built for this purpose (PLM/PDM), so I’ve figured it would easiest to build a folder structure with some metadata alongside it to go on top of GIT, and allow GIT to deal with version control. While STL files are text, a majority of my models are in proprietary binary formats, but GIT can still at least store the files and provide a history. I figure the repository would have 3 primary folders, parts, products, 3rd party (more or less unstructured). Each part/product would also have an export folder which will store a copy of STLs, and metadata to go with for a specific published version of a model (might be duplicate data, maybe use some type of tag in GIT to represent each officially published version).