FreeCAD 0.19 - Converting STL files to Solid models

Hello and welcome to another tutorial with me, Andrew!

Today I'm showing how to covert an STL file into a solid model within FreeCAD! This can be a highly rewarding, but it doesn't always work out due to problems with STL files. Hopefully my video can shed some light onto how to get around some of these problems!

If you have anything to share which could help other FreeCAD users, leave a comment below :)

Thank you for taking the time to watch my video, I really appreciate it! Have an awesome weekend! :)

For those looking for further reading on what I've spoken about, follow these links to the FreeCAD wiki:

PC specs:
Intel Core i7 – 6700k CPU 4.00 GHz
16.0 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card
Maximus Ranger VIII motherboard

Freecad version - 0.19

[flypic]

Hi Andrew, I see you've stopped doing the tutorials now. I've moved on from Freecad to Alibre Cad but needed to come back and refresh my memory as I needed to make a solid from an STL and can't do it in Alibre. Thanks again. Such a shame you've stopped as you're such a good and clear instructor. Jim 👍

[geefish]

For everyone having issues decreasing the sewing tolerance, go to edit – preferences – units and increase the number of decimal to 3. This worked for me.

[Kimchi_Studios]

It took me 1.5 hours to do the first 3.5 minutes but I got the hole! Thanks. I went super slow and finally did it right. Your presentation is solid.

[BrightBlueJim]

This was a great deal of help for me. I only downloaded FreeCAD because I needed a way to turn OpenSCAD models into CNC router toolpaths, and yours was the first tutorial I found that I could actually follow. I learned more than I really wanted to, but thank you.

[hardwareful]

love this tutorial. I didn't have to sit through an agonizing 5-10 minutes, but had my questions answered in the first 3 minutes.

[JustJereInCalif]

AWESOME !!! Very clearly described procedure. Best of all, it works --- even for some of my complex STL files. Thank you --- you've saved me countless hours and a lot of frustration.

[striveupward]

I wanted to add that, by this video, you have saved me MULTIPLE dozens of hours. Thank you!!👍👍⭐

[tekd]

I think increasing the sewing tolerance increases the number of areas to evaluate. The larger the tolerance the more potential gaps to fill. That would be my guess anyway.

[LoneTech]

I haven't inspected how the sowing tolerance works in FreeCAD, but spontaneously I'd think it's something like how far apart two vertices or edges may be while being merged, similar to Blender's Remove Doubles tool (now named Merge By Distance, I think). A higher tolerance thus means more geometry needs to be considered to find which to merge. A fully compliant STL should work with a tolerance of 0, while a vertex list format like Wavefront OBJ doesn't need this check, since connecting faces share a vertex rather than just have identical vertices.

STL is a very minimal format. It only holds triangles, and that's why you get so many facets. The Refine tool merges tangent faces, e.g. coplanar for planar faces (STL triangles are planar, unlike AMF triangles which can bend), but for the cylinder surface the tesselation in this case wasn't quite that way. This is a challenging problem akin to image vectorization. The short of it is, if you want precise shapes, don't use mesh formats like STL. Use e.g. STEP or IGES. Better still is source formats, but exchange formats have their purpose in moving across tools.

When exporting STL from FreeCAD, it has to tesselate all geometry, as well as when displaying it. The View property group Object Style has parameters that affect this, like Angular Deflection and Deviation.

[TheTinyMouse]

Thank you so much for this video! I have been looking for days on how to convert a mesh to soild that can actually save to a .step file!

[DaleyKreations]

This is fantastic! I just got a 3D scanner and want to scan a sculpture I've made and turn it into an animatronic. Being able to bring it into FreeCad and hollow it out, manipulate it, etc is wonderful.

[Deychy]

the ONLY tutoriall that explained create body step !!!! FInally i can edit ffs !

[somerandomvideos]

steps:
1. 
select model,
select "Part" in the top menu,
select "create shape from mesh.." in a dropdown
2.
click on a new piece of geometry
select "Part" in the top menu,
select "Convert to solid"
hide previous items
3.
click on a new piece of geometry
select "Part" in the top menu,
select "Create a copy"
select "Refine shape"
4.
click on a new piece of geometry
select "create a new body and make it active" in the top long menu
5.
export file as step or else

[BrainDeadEngineering]

Great stuff ! I will use this ! Cheers for the help ! )

[NeonGreenT]

I watched this tutorial a few months ago, selected a converting tolerance of 0.01, it is still computing to this day.

[striveupward]

Outstanding video! Thank you so much!

[alanvalentim]

Thank you, very helpfull video, simple and quick 🙌

[exist]

This was a very helpful and well-balanced tutorial. Thanks very much.

[KnotHead]

Here’s my thought on the macro. I noticed that the macro contains .obj as the mesh variable. Not all stl files are obj defined which is why I think you’d be getting errors on some stl files. I could be wrong. But it’s just a theory.

[darrenconway]

I found that the up/down arrows for sewing tolerance went from 1-10 integers. Increasing the number increases computational time a lot. On that basis alone, a higher number should give better results.