28 answers

• 
  Sudhir Gill over 2 years ago

  Try this. Worked fine for me.

  1. Step 1

     Start SolidWorks and click Open.

     

  2. Step 2

     Change file type to STL.

     

  3. Step 3

     Click Options.

     

  4. Step 4

     Change import as to Solid body.

     

  5. Step 5

     Select STL file and click Open.

     

  6. Step 6

     And we have STL file converted into Solid Body.

     

  1. 
     tarun Nallur 10 days ago

     Hi Sudhir. Unlike what you have shown above, there isn't any part or model appearing. The only thing that is showing up are the planes . How come the model isn;t appearing ?

  2. 
     Stephen Nyberg over 2 years ago

     The part I am trying to convert is too complex for this method.

  3. 
     Sudhir Gill over 2 years ago

     I once tried this way. I imported the STL in Adobe photoshop as a 3D file and then exported it as OBJ and imported it in SW. The surfaces imported were too bad.. :(... but somehow there was a transfer.

• 
  Asal about 2 years ago

  Hello every body.
  I have the same problem. I have a STL file of a human body, contains million faceted surfaces, and I want to convert this to a unite surface inorder to use in ICEM ANSYS. I try so many things and now I am really tired of it!!
  please some one help me to overcome this. how can I convert it to a solid body.
  I also try solidwords. but it said: This STL model has two many surfaces.Try to opening with the graphics body option.
  what should I do?
  thanks in advance for your help.

  1. 
     Asal about 2 years ago

     could you please give me more information?
     I try both rapidform and geomagic, but I can export it to any software afterwards!
     What should I do?
     thanks

  2. 
     Sudhir Gill about 2 years ago

     You will need to process it using some reverse engineering software like rapidform, geomagic or CATIA Reverse engineering

  3. 
     gino 6 months ago

     If you can open .step files then goto www.solveering.com they have a program to convert .STL files to Step ...check out ver 2.3.2

• 
  Stefan Varga about 3 years ago

  You can also try some reverse engineering software like Rapidform or Geomagic. But do keep in mind if you intend to use them frequently they do cost a whole lot. If it's just for one project try to get a trial version.

• 
  Cemal Uslu over 3 years ago

  There is no way to do it with quality. Best way is redrawing it.

  Or you can just try this; (you will probably have empty faces)
  Download MeshLab**. Drag drop the stl file through MeshLab, save as the file .dwg
  Drag drop the .dwg file to Solidworks. The best way again is redrawing the stl file on solidworks.

  ** http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

  1. 
     Asal about 2 years ago

     But Meshlab can not export in .dwg!
     how come!!

• 
  Onur AYTEKIN about 3 years ago

  I know that SW users will angry with me but i should say it :) If you need it for reverse engineering first get rid of SW. Solidworks have very limited capabilities about working with STL mesh files and reverse engineering. If you want rapid solution Inus technologies can be effective(especially XOR series are very effective). However iam agree with STEF that they are not cheap solutions. If you have just single project that contain stl data and geometry isnt too complex,then Cemal's solution is enough. Also its freeware ( I mean MeshLab) Of course there are some other ways by business plan. For example if we consider you need that conversation ( STL => CAD Type) just for actual project. You can post it to some freelance sites as job posting. So Someone can do it for you with low prices. Just idea

  1. 
     Michael Dondelewski 7 months ago

     I totally agree. SW has VERY LIMITED capabilities when working with STL files. The more facets in STL files the less effective conversion to SW file. Mesh lab will open STL file but it will not convert it to SW file.

• 
  Luke T 12 months ago

  If I recall correctly, Solidworks' STL import utility has a maximum of 20k facets. For objects with over 20k facets, I recommend opening the STL in MeshLab as Cemal recommends then exporting or saving as a .dwg file. in Solidworks you must got go file --> open and select the .dwg file extension in the drop down menu. opening will walk you through a wizard. be warned- using this utility to import files into SW is extremely processor and memory intensive. SW will create a plane and sketch for each facet of the dwg file in an attempt to make a part. There are often geometry errors that aren't always fixable within SW. Mine took overnight to import a file with ~40k fascets and i've got an intel i7 with 8Gb ram and a SSD drive. If possible, avoid importing large STL files into SW because it is extremely taxing on your system. SW will crash if you run out of RAM. It can be done, but i recommend using it as a last resort.

  1. 
     tarun Nallur 10 days ago

     Hey there. I am new to solidworks and don't quite understand what you mean by 20k facets.

     Also had one more issue with stl files. After following Sudhir's advice about opening an stl file a dialog box appears " do you wish to run import diagnostics on this part " and then i click ok . Then under messages its says " no fault faces or gaps remain in the geometry. " After this all i get in the history menu are the 4 direction planes without any part or model . Would you happen to know what's going on ?

• 
  c290b6ca 11 months ago

  Hi, I know Spaceclaim can do this.

• 
  Leonid Bunegin 4 months ago

  Download FreeCad then import the stl file in the "mesh design" work space. At this point you can clean up your stl using the mesh design tools. Switch to the "part" work space click on the stl file in the left plane then click on the part menu, scroll down to "create part from mesh" then wait. If the mesh is very dense it may take a while. You can use other programs like MeshLab to reduce the mesh density to shorten the conversion time. Export the solid model as an stp file. Solidworks, Design Magic both will read in the file and allow its manipulation.

• 
  Christopher Chism over 3 years ago

  Ok, it's going to take a few weeks but I guess I don't have a choice.

• 
  Michal over 2 years ago

  If you want cheaper solution for RE than geomagic, try Delcam PowerSHAPE.
  In PS you can mesh point clouds, make surfaces and solids. See the
  *** http://www.delcam.tv/ps2011/lz/en/whats-new-videos.html and search for Re-Engineering 1. Aligning scanned data video

• 
  Matthieu SINICO over 1 year ago

  You can also use FreeCAD, following this http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/free-cad/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=253&p=2766&hilit=mesh+to+solid#p2766

• 
  julian applebee 12 months ago

  I haven't done but you could try opening it in Rhyno changing it to nerbs which if you have less than a certain amount it will work then export it as IGES this then can be imported in solid works (but if it works then the file will be very heavy as each part of the mesh is the equiv. of a loft!!!)
  It should be possible

  1. 
     Cary Brown 24 days ago

     FYI... it's NURBS... "non-uniform rational bezier spline" surfaces.

• 
  Luke T 12 months ago

  SolidWorks imports an STL file as either a Solid Body or a Graphical object. You cannot add features (Cut, extrude, etc...) to a graphics body. when opening an STL file and the STL extension is selected in the open window, click options* and select solid body.

• 
  Marc Ben Beaulieu 12 months ago

  How can I save a .dwg file in meshlab? My version (1.3.2) does not give me the choice to export as .dwg and when I force it, I have a "unsupported extension" error.
  I tried to export as DXF but end up with a 2D drawing of the mesh in SW

• 
  Barry 12 months ago

  i converted an STL with 70k facets using Meshlab. dwg was not a format option, but dxf was. I selected solid model and curves in the dialog. the file came up 20 minutes later as a 76Mb assembly! But it worked.

• 
  bob andrews 9 months ago

  do as the example install mastercam direct then in mastercamdirect tick import operations tick creat edge curves tick okay work like a charm

• 
  Clarke Gong 9 months ago

  The data structures of STL and solid model are so different that only simple STL models can be recognized and converted to a solid model by some feature detection technologies. One PhD student in our lab is working on it (for simple geometry like plain, sphere or fillet). But for some complex STL model like a human body someone mentioned above, it's impossible. If there is such method it would be a big thing in the computer graphics realm : )

• 
  Michael Dondelewski 7 months ago

  Onur Aytekin is right. Solidworks software is very limited in translating STL files. Large amounts of facets in STL file and Soldworks software crashes.

  True, STL files can be imported as Graphics body but who wants to spend endless hours creating sketches and solids from sketches of the picture?

  It is shame that Solidworks makers are unwilling to make improvements in this area.
  I am Solidworks user since year 2000 and I see not much improvement in this software from year to year.
  I compared Solidworks vs Inventor.
  Inventor is harder to sketch with when creating parts.
  Parts library needs to be precisely located within a folder.
  Inventor however has better gear design software and FEA simulation then Solidworks.

• 
  Gary 7 months ago

  I work in the film industry and we've solved this issue using geomagic studio it's expensive but the only way to go from a sculpt in zbrush to an iges file ready for engineering in sw. Powershape can also be used but I don't know how effective it is. There's a few freelancers out there who offer to translatefrom stl to iges for a fee. As sw and other cad systems improve so will this issue.

• 
  Scott Rodgers 7 months ago

  Saw a video on YouTube showing some features of SpaceClaim, and one of them is deriving a solid from an imported STL.

• 
  Riki Lam 6 months ago

  I can convert your STL to CAD for only $5. Check out my new gig on Fiverr at http://www.fiverr.com/rikkilambo/convert-one-3d-polygon-mesh-to-cad

• 
  lee thanh ha 5 months ago

  I have a project STL file from Proteus 8.0 and cannot convert to Solidworks file after implementing as guide.

• 
  Matt 2 months ago

  Freecad works, but my meshsizes are way to big what result in a crashing freecad.
  I quess i have something to do this christmass...

• 
  Matt about 1 month ago

  I get it, my mesh files are too big for freecad, that it why it crashes all the time.
  I've got an OBJ about 131kb and a stl of 60mb....

  Is there anybody here with the expierence to open this size of files with his ''Scan to 3d'' option in Solidworks?
  Please let me know or send my a private message
  Thanks in advance

• 
  Charles Blythe about 1 month ago

  Basic considerations for the less experienced with cad files
  A well constructed solid model, made up of the least complex geometric entities (lines arcs, surfaces defined by them) is ideal and stable and can be shared without degradation in a solid format (STEP, parasolid, SAT )

  IGES and STL files do not contain the original reference geometry to reconstruct the solid and will at the very best result in an approximation.
  What happens is the resulting surfaces have many control points (both along and across) that are exponetially more complex and degraded.

  As a number of these poorly defined surfaces are used to construct your model process gets time consuming, inaccurate and unstable. As your human model as stl has far to many control points to process efficiently.

  A client making breast implants, laser scanned the handmade model with many thousands of points and had a team trying to manipulate the meshes.

  I digitized a 9 points around to generate the drive curve, 7 from the nipple down 7 from the nipple up made the along curves and swept a surface that
  was the very natural looking and easy to manipulate.

  Say the tibia, leg bone, the long section can be lofted with widely spaced simple splines made of a few points from the stl. with slices more closely
  spaced as the rate of curvature increases. You have far to much data..
  then swept.

  The moral of the story is STL is pretty much last choice for making a solid
  and because it is a dense mesh of triangles some means of extracting the least complex geometry to generate a stable workable model will yield professional results.

• 
  Cary Brown 24 days ago

  My first comment is "STL is not a graphics file," it's a 3D data format.

  My second comment is "STL is intended to be an output file, not an input file."

  Your best bet, if you really want to use STL to do what you're suggesting, is to get access to software designed to convert "point cloud data" into a surface.

  What is an STL file? It's basically a file which "slices" a 3D model into a series of very thin 2D "layers." This output is then used to drive a stereolithography (or similar) machine which produces physical prototypes through layer-by-layer deposition.

  This file format is not a CAD format, nor is it a graphics format... it is merely the final step before making that physical part.

  Each layer consists of a series of line segments, each of which consists of two end vertices. It is possible, with some data-import packages, to load up these vertex points as though they are laser-scanned "point cloud" data. In this case, the 3D software can convert this into an equivalent 3D surface set, which can then be transformed into a solid (if the data is complete).

  That's your ONLY option, and it will not give you parametric, history-based models and assemblies. But it's enough to get you sufficient information to rebuild the part with a high degree of accuracy to the original design intent.

  1. 
     tarun Nallur 10 days ago

     Hey just a question. By " history based models " do you mean that it won't give us the history of the features and tools e.t.c used to create that model/part and assemblies ?

• 
  Samulevich Felix 13 days ago

  Guys way not use SolidWorks in right way at first ?It is big most powerful software .

• 
  beilin bei about 1 year ago

  STL, can not be edited, can not be solidwords use, how to do?

  1. 
     Matt about 1 month ago

     Download Mesblab, it is free and with Meshlab you are able to edit your stl or other mesh files.