• This forum is the machine-generated translation of www.cad3d.it/forum1 - the Italian design community. Several terms are not translated correctly.

calculation of a volume consisting of surfaces

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alystar
  • Start date Start date

Alystar

Guest
Good morning, everyone. :smile:
It's the first time I've been writing here, even because it's the first time I find myself having to solve a problem with autocads.
I have a stl file that can originally be opened only through inventor fusion. Once opened, the files are viewable but, apart from the "views" you can not interact in any way, or edit.

As the object is a three-dimensional, polygonalized "closed" shell, with other polygonalized closed surfaces in general form, my problem is to determine the volume enclosed by these surfaces.

I have no idea how to do it.

I tried to save the stl file in a dwg file, so you can open it with autocad and can edit it. However, apart from the enormous slowness of processing, and despite having read several times suggestions in the help (in appearance very clear), I still have no idea how to determine the volume enclosed by these surfaces.

Sorry if the question turns out to be quite generic. :smile: my knowledge of the program is very limited and I have no idea how to proceed, although I think it is a problem solved in a very short time.
I think I've posted the discussion in the right section... if it wasn't, correct me as well. :smile:

Thanks for the answers!
 
I tried with the function, uselessly.
Unfortunately, I probably have difficulty understanding what is actually a "solid".
Let me give you an example. if in 3d modelling design a cube through "box", and then try to make convert to solid, it says that the object can not be converted. while if I use convert to surface, the surface of the object actually changes into something.
I tried to do the same with a drawing already made by third parties (I don't know if with autocad) representative a solid closed and from the same identical problem.

Moreover, if I try to use the massprop function on the cube I designed, this returns me its volume. if instead I try to do the same on the design of third parties, says no solid or region selected. in this case I have to select the overall design, as sum of each segment that composes it (while in the cube designed by me, it was enough to click on one side that selected it entirely)

apparently the problem seems to be at the bottom of being able to convert the object into a solid (even if my cube drawn by me did not seem to be... )
 
Excuse me, I'll try to be a little clearer and give you some more information.

I converted the file, initially stl, into dxf so that autocad could open it.
At this point, I see various objects I should calculate the enclosed volume. These objects are represented by triangular faces, which autocad indicates as "face 3d".
Now, I have done this way:
I thought I was working initially with the convert function to the surface. I applied it, and it converted the set of 3d faces into a set of "superfici (plane)". I don't know what to do with these surfaces.

therefore I thought to operate through the most interesting function converts into solid. selecting the object in all its faces (still as 3d faces) the function converts into solid says "impossible to convert objects".
I then selected the object in all its faces and applied the levigamesh function. At this point, a message warns me that "one or more objects in the current selection are not solid 3d elementary. mesh smoothness operation provides the best results when using elementary solids such as cones, pyramids and parallelipipeds. if you continue, some objects could produce an inadequately smoothed mesh representation." I continue clicking on "crea mesh". the object now appears perfectly identical to before, except for the fact that triangular surfaces have passed from " 3d" to "mesh".
reapplying the function converts into solid to all faces of the object, autocad processes for a few seconds and then throw out the message "mesh not converted as it is not closed or self-intersecting", for a number of times equal to the number of mesh that I selected.

each single mesh is obviously not closed, but the set of triangular mesh that make up the object obviously creates a perfectly airtight object.

I add, moreover, that always starting from the object converted into a set of mesh, and applying the function converts to the surface (instead of converting to solid), this converts all mesh into an identical number of "superifices" (identical at first, except for the fact that it is now only "surfaces" and no more "surfaces" ). I don't know what to do with these surfaces.

This is all I managed to finish. If I could convert the object into a real solid, then through the propmass function I would immediately find the volume, I would say.

I thank you in advance for your help
 
Tristan said:
directly import the stl file, without going from the dxf!
Click to expand...
How can it be done? between the formats that can be opened, does not figure the sl... allows me to open dwg, dws, dxf, dwt. the stl file I could only open it with the inventor fusion!
Is there any options I need to check?
 
done... even here does not support the sl though. .
there is a list of formats much wider than before, but the sl is not present.
also trying to select "all files", and opening the sl, nothing is displayed. .
 
Boys, I'm just practicing a part of the file I need to process.
that represented is one of the many objects I have to find the included volume. altogether I have to treat about a 20ine of objects similar to that.
the file is saved in dxf format, and constitutes a part of the original stl.

If anyone had a moment of time to devote, I would be very grateful.. .
 

Attachments

for the "path" convinsuperf + scolpiscisuperf

for the other form it is impossible because it is not hermetic, there are 3D closures.
 
We don't do much with dxf. ..try with inventor fusion to open the stl file and save it in sat (instead that in dxf)
 
I thank you immediately for the availability you have shown me.

for gp. : the "method" you found is very valid (I always neglected the option converts to surfaces, I looked after solids...). Unfortunately, as you have already noticed, there are some objects that seem to lack 3d faces (just that you miss one, and the object is not airtight).
about half of the original file objects seem to present this problem, so if I try to sculpt them all together, after a long time of processing it ends with not sculpting anything. I have to do it object by object (of course for those for which you can perform the operation). I simply received the file such and which, was not made by me.
is it possible to make the missing 3d faces "add" so as to close it hermetically?
Moreover, I noticed (always in the complete dxf file that I converted, through the accutrans 3d program) that some objects, 3-4 in everything and much smaller than the potato, do not have just a enclosed volume, as they are simply 3d faces approached each other to form a "explained straw". I thought that they probably had such a small thickness, that the original processor neglected it (making it, at practical time, a set of related plans). I think it is a secondary problem, as they are so small that the volume contribution is ridiculous compared to the others (see "path". . )
I also add this particular "small". opening the original stl file with inventor fusion (with which it is absolutely not editable, in any way...) seemed to me that all the objects were closed hermetically. It seemed to me that no one was missing a 3d face, no one was "explained straw". In short, that all were hermetic objects with a enclosed volume. I don't want that, trying to convert it into the dxf, something lost on the street.. .


for tristan: opening the original stl file with inventor fusion, this does not allow me to save it in a sat. saves it only in dwg.
I tried to do the same also the program by which I converted the initial stl into dwg, i.e. accutrans 3d. unfortunately not even he allows you to save it in sat, although it can save it in a 20ine of other formats.
Could you, if it suits you, suggest me some other format, beyond the sat, so that it can try to convert it to that?

anyway, I attach the original stl file with all the objects that I have to find the internal volume. Surely it will be more useful than my ten thousand words explanations. . .

I thank you again for the time dedicated to me, you are very kind.
 

Attachments

with inventor fusion 2013 I opened your stl and converted it quietly into sat.
What is that? asteroids?? :confused:
 
Really? When I tried to save him, he allowed me to do it only in the format I wrote before. unless there was any other particular command, I use it very recently.
However, no, they are not asteroids: they are air bubbles inside a metal sample.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
44,997
Messages
339,767
Members
4
Latest member
ibt

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 0 (members: 0, guests: 0)
Back
Top