Saving a stack to .STL format?

[Gabriel Landini]

Hi,
Does anybody know of an application or plugin or library that can convert a
binary stack (a volume) into a STL file?
STL files are used for rapid prototyping (3D printers).
I know that the 3D Viewer can save the volume in DXF format, but I am also
struggling to find something that will read DXF and save it as STL.

Thanks

Gabriel

[Michael Doube]

Gabriel,

I don't know of anything both free and good (but there are commercial
packages of varying quality).

Given that the spec is fairly open and not too difficult to understand,
it shouldn't be too hard to hack up a couple of methods:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_%28file_format%29

I have in mind that Bene's 3D Viewer stores surface meshes as sets of
Point3f's, each of which represents a vertex of a triangle. The
triangle's normal can easily be calculated from the cross-product of two
edges.  Then it is just a case of writing out the file in the
appropriate format.

Looking at the 3D Viewer code, the best place for such a method is
probably the MeshExporter class.  I know Bene is pretty busy right now
and so am I, but this would be a very useful function for users of the
viewer (I have wanted it myself in the past).

Michael

On 27/09/10 14:48, Gabriel Landini wrote:

> Hi,
> Does anybody know of an application or plugin or library that can convert a
> binary stack (a volume) into a STL file?
> STL files are used for rapid prototyping (3D printers).
> I know that the 3D Viewer can save the volume in DXF format, but I am also
> struggling to find something that will read DXF and save it as STL.
>
> Thanks
>
> Gabriel

[Albert Cardona-2]

2010/9/27 Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]>:
> Hi,
> Does anybody know of an application or plugin or library that can convert a
> binary stack (a volume) into a STL file?
> STL files are used for rapid prototyping (3D printers).
> I know that the 3D Viewer can save the volume in DXF format, but I am also
> struggling to find something that will read DXF and save it as STL.

Blender does :)

For best experience, save as wavefront in the 3D viewer, and load into
Blender via "File - import - wavefront (obj)".
Be careful not to limit the size of your object to "10", or to merge
the multiple objects. Read the import dialog with attention.

Albert
--
http://albert.rierol.net

[Albert Cardona-2]

2010/9/27 Michael Doube <[hidden email]>:

> Gabriel,
>
> I don't know of anything both free and good (but there are commercial
> packages of varying quality).
>
> Given that the spec is fairly open and not too difficult to understand, it
> shouldn't be too hard to hack up a couple of methods:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_%28file_format%29
>
> I have in mind that Bene's 3D Viewer stores surface meshes as sets of
> Point3f's, each of which represents a vertex of a triangle. The triangle's
> normal can easily be calculated from the cross-product of two edges.  Then
> it is just a case of writing out the file in the appropriate format.
>
> Looking at the 3D Viewer code, the best place for such a method is probably
> the MeshExporter class.  I know Bene is pretty busy right now and so am I,
> but this would be a very useful function for users of the viewer (I have
> wanted it myself in the past).

... [show rest of quote]

Michael,

I wrote the MeshExporter class. Let me know if you need help with it.
The STL format would be very welcome.

Albert
--
http://albert.rierol.net

[Gabriel Landini]

On Monday 27 Sep 2010  16:03:38 Albert Cardona wrote:
> 2010/9/27 Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]>:
> > Hi,
> > Does anybody know of an application or plugin or library that can convert
> > a binary stack (a volume) into a STL file?
> > STL files are used for rapid prototyping (3D printers).
> > I know that the 3D Viewer can save the volume in DXF format, but I am
> > also struggling to find something that will read DXF and save it as STL.
>
> Blender does :)

Ah... so finally that day has arrived.  :-)

> For best experience, save as wavefront in the 3D viewer, and load into
> Blender via "File - import - wavefront (obj)".
> Be careful not to limit the size of your object to "10", or to merge
> the multiple objects. Read the import dialog with attention.

Many thanks, I will. I need only to export a single object at a time.

Regards

Gabriel

[alejo-4]

Dear Albert, any tutorial on how to import a STL or Wavefront file
generated in Imagej to Blender and render a 3D volume? (Blender is so
cryptic to me..........)

Thanks in advance.

Alejo

2010/9/27 Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]>:

> On Monday 27 Sep 2010  16:03:38 Albert Cardona wrote:
>> 2010/9/27 Gabriel Landini <[hidden email]>:
>> > Hi,
>> > Does anybody know of an application or plugin or library that can convert
>> > a binary stack (a volume) into a STL file?
>> > STL files are used for rapid prototyping (3D printers).
>> > I know that the 3D Viewer can save the volume in DXF format, but I am
>> > also struggling to find something that will read DXF and save it as STL.
>>
>> Blender does :)
>
> Ah... so finally that day has arrived.  :-)
>
>> For best experience, save as wavefront in the 3D viewer, and load into
>> Blender via "File - import - wavefront (obj)".
>> Be careful not to limit the size of your object to "10", or to merge
>> the multiple objects. Read the import dialog with attention.
>
> Many thanks, I will. I need only to export a single object at a time.
>
> Regards
>
> Gabriel
>

... [show rest of quote]

[Albert Cardona-2]

2011/10/31 Alejo C.S. <[hidden email]>:
> Dear Albert, any tutorial on how to import a STL or Wavefront file
> generated in Imagej to Blender and render a 3D volume? (Blender is so
> cryptic to me..........)
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Alejo


Alejo,

Should not be harder than "File - Import - Wavefront" or "STL".

Albert

--
http://albert.rierol.net
http://www.ini.uzh.ch/~acardona/