Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.

First time visiting? Here are some places to start:
  1. Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
  2. Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
  3. Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
  4. Be respectful, on topic and if you see a problem, Flag it.

If you would like to contact our Community Manager personally, feel free to send a private message or an email.

Importing files from Maya/Blender... (mesh)

luis_garcialuis_garcia Member Posts: 6
Hi,
I am working in a project that aesthetics and mechanical design is involved at the same time. Specifically I am working with some 3D scans that has been refined and corrected on Maya. From Maya this mesh has been exported to IGES files and then imported to Onshape. My surprise is that once imported it is recognised as a buch of surfaces and therefore can no be imported to any assembly.
My question is:
How can I import this mesh as part and then load the part in some assembly? or can be surfaces imported to assemblies in any way?

Thank you.

Best Answer

Answers

  • andrew_troupandrew_troup Member, Mentor Posts: 1,584 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2015
    Lou
    Please add me to "bring surfaces into assemblies along with solids imported from other MCAD formats"

    Although I could probably equally well live with "bring assemblies (solids and surfaces) into Onshape Part Studios" - and perhaps this might actually be more useful.

    I say this because it is trivially easy to carry on and make a Part Studio into an assembly, but there is no reverse capability (and I'm thinking there won't be for a while?)

    And it strikes me that an Onshape Part Studio is more akin to a dumb (imported) assembly than an Onshape assembly is: each of the former items is a collection of unmated parts which are nevertheless in a correct (or, at least, useful) arrangement.
  • luis_garcialuis_garcia Member Posts: 6
    Thank you Lou for your answer.
    I will be happy if "bring surfaces into assembly" or something similar is implemented. The reason for that is that I have to check geometry with some 3D scans and if I can import that surfaces into an assembly, I could easily check geometry, proportions and aesthetics in combination with the mechanical part.

  • aaron_2aaron_2 Member Posts: 26 PRO
    Hi,
    I am working in a project that aesthetics and mechanical design is involved at the same time. Specifically I am working with some 3D scans that has been refined and corrected on Maya. From Maya this mesh has been exported to IGES files and then imported to Onshape. My surprise is that once imported it is recognised as a buch of surfaces and therefore can no be imported to any assembly.
    My question is:
    How can I import this mesh as part and then load the part in some assembly? or can be surfaces imported to assemblies in any way?

    Thank you.

    I found a work around for this using other programs like Freecad, Import your stl from Maya/Blender. turn it into a Part in Freecad, then export it as a STEP file and into Onshape. So far I have been able to find a work around for just about everything I have needed to do, but in the end it is always to enable me to work with my designs in Onshape. At first I used this so that I could use words in my Onshape designs and then I was asked if I could modify an stl file, so I tried that and it worked too.  It was difficult to figure out but using youtube for a crash course on Freecad, I was able to get it done in a reasonable amount of time.
  • luis_garcialuis_garcia Member Posts: 6
    Hi Aaron,
    Thank you for your reply.
    I have tried the FreeCad tool "turn into a solid" but when the mesh is a 3d scan with high mesh resolution it becomes a pain, it takes ages to convert to a solid and sometimes you have to repair the mesh to be able to convert it to a solid.
    I was able to create a low poly mesh of the thing that I wanted to import, but when I imported the solid then it was recognized on onshape as surfaces.
    However, yesterday I reimported a closed NURBS mesh into Onshape and it was recognized as a part, so I suspect that if the mesh is close and with no errors or all the normals to the same direction then Onshape recognizes that as a single close surface and therefore as a part.

    Not sure if the problem is the import parameters or the mesh creation.
     

  • aaron_2aaron_2 Member Posts: 26 PRO
    My guess would be mesh creation, you should be able to check that before exporting from blender or maya.  I have read a lot about that the cheap of free programs have a lot of problems with this, and also experienced it with on letter when importing to Onshape, I was able to fix it by doing a new extrude off the surface of the letter and then deleting the original. I doubt that work work in your situation though, but it might in some cases by extruding and then boolean all together.
     
Sign In or Register to comment.