DennisD I think you said somewhere you were just given this scan and do not have the physical part. Do you know if the part is removed from the airframe and if so where in the country it’s located? If it were near me, I would want to get it into our tool room CMM where the tech could scan it as well as gather point data for obvious primitive geometries. We’ve found that using probed points to recreate basic model features instead of trying to blend triangles then combine those bodies with something from the scanned data works pretty well.
I am happy to report that we have a solid file!
Let me clarify a few things. The part was scanned by someone else. I only got involved after the fact. The scanner apparently just wanted his money for scanning and did not care too much about the results because there were a lot of problems with the file. But, no, we could not go back and get it rescanned. We had to deal with what we got. The customer is a non-profit working to rebuild a historically accurate WWII B-17. https://www.facebook.com/hangarthirteenfoundation
Though this particular part is very large the situation is even larger. [color=#BF0000]MANY people have this problem, i.e., scans that have holes/problems and STL files that are difficult to work with.[/color] I knew there would be many of you that would see this post and offer help. We were just looking for a solution and we did not have the skills or software to get it done. We now have a solution and I am happy to share the information for the benefit of everyone that encounters this problem with scanned files.
nPower Software (https://www.npowersoftware.com/) makes an add-in for SolidWorks called Power Surfacing RE for reverse engineering. They were a joy to work with! Gary Crocker was on the phone with me for almost two hours as we shared screens and figured some things out. He is the president and the main programmer. They have taken a different approach to this type of problem and have developed some tools and capabilities that nobody else has achieved. He was telling me about some of the things they were able to do for the movie industry CGI. Most impressive!
He even took it upon himself to have his team use this problem in a 50-minute tutorial video. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkBTNRgmWjU
I just wanted to share that there is a solution out there that works with SWX. It still takes time and skill, but so does everything we encounter.
I want to thank everyone that contributed to this thread. All of the comments helped provide insights and ultimately led to a solution. In particular, thank you, nPower for your help!
Hey Alin,
I see you’ve got a thread going about importing stl files. But, I didn’t see you comment on this thread. Looks like Dennis found a solution. But, I figured I’d bring it to your attention.
Spectacular! Thanks for pointing this to me, Matt!
That’s simply amazing!