Import STEP file to Blender

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1

I’m trying to import a STEP file to Blender, but it doesn’t work!

This is how I do: I open the STEP file in Freecad and I select everthing, then I export it as a .stl file, but when I import the file into Blender, I only get parts of the object and some of the parts are in wrong position. Very frustrating and the client is waiting. I have also tried to export it as .obj and .dae file without any luck!

Can someone give me some advise how to solve this?

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2

I wrote a couple of scripts to do this because exporting and importing was so slow with large files. You can try that. It is not very comfortable but it works. And it is a lot faster than stl or obj.

First you have to turn all your objects in FreeCad into meshes. You can do this by selecting all of them and running the following script:
(if you get naming errors in the process look at the end of this post)

TessellateWithPlacement.FCMacro (406 Bytes)

This generates a bunch of new objects.
Select all of these new objects and open the following script. Be sure to write write your filepath and filename into the second line where it says:
“C:\yourFilepath\yourFilename.QEX”
Then run the following script.

QuickExporter.FCMacro (2.5 KB)

Then open Blender and load the following script. Be sure to enter your filepath and filename that you want to import. Note that you have to use two backslashes if you are on windows:
QuickImporter.py (2.8 KB)

Now, if you get naming errors you might have characters which the scripts dont like such as ä,ö,ü.
In that case you can use the following rename script. Select all of your objects and run the follwing script:
You can change the objcet name in the last line of it. This is not elegant but it works:
BatchRename.FCMacro (138 Bytes)

If you want a different tesselation you can set it in the TesselateWithPlacement.FCMacro.
In the line:
myMesh.Mesh = Mesh.Mesh(i.Shape.tessellate(0.1))
you can change the “0.1” to something else and get a different tesselation.

3

I use moi3d- comes in fine as an OBJ. are you looking specifically for FreeCAD solutions?

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4

@ Lumpengnom

do you have import script for bl for 2.8
would be interesting to have it ready for 2.8

thanks
happy bl

5

I have not tested it in 2.80. If it does not work i will rewrite it some time but currently i am busy with finishing a job.

6

Thanks for all answers! I used a free trial version of moi3d and exported the object as a .stl file. It was very simple, fast and the result was perfect. But after 30-days it cost $295! I’m still looking for a free and simple alternative.