@parel: Thanks for the demo file. The behavior with 12 and 10 should be the same. You can just set the merge distance to zero and it should match. If it doesn’t match there’s something wrong. I’ll take a look at the demo file but I don’t completely understand what your issue is. Currently some compound shapes are built as one object. Is that what you are referring to?
Current plan is to finish all the features, then if there’s enough interest I might consider looking into Mac and Linux. The problem is that distributing binary addons for Mac or Linux, where it has to be compiled from C++ has previously proven to be a huge hassle.
STEP_OCC_import_0.0.14 is up with hierarchies. The addon creates both flat and hierarchy collection. You can just delete the collection you don’t need. Tell me if it’s enough to have hierarchies just based on collections or is there need to parent the objects to each others.
Probably some bugs. Will still keep testing if anything shows up. Send me a message if you find any.
How would parenting hierarchies work? Using empties as collection headers?
Parenting probably only makes sense if those empties get positioned correctly, according to where the origin of each group lies in the step file (like the group of a wheel rotating around its axle, etc.)
Thanks, bought it and use it on an old Laptop meanwhile. Not depend on it, but it’s never bad to have alternatives, beside me 5 other tools.
By the way, in C4D is an interesting option, called heal. It’s for patches that got broken up, typical IGES import happened before. This will split up all patches into separate meshes and is a true killer in some cases. Normal open such files in Rhino and do a join, as Region is real fast here, or call a friend who got ProE. Had a case where one simple element increased file size from 500 MB to 4 GB and Rhino needed 8 hours to open. Which was senseless as performance was to low to do any changes. Import in C4D with the heal option as the only rescue, took also 8 hours, but the file was fine.
Now downpoints on Rhino is, it kills Instances. And C4D only triangulated. I still love Moi3D exporter, such a great little tool.
I’m still having troubles with another STEP file (NDAed again, so I can’t share it). Size is probably not the problem, as it’s smaller than the other file that worked. I only managed to import it into 3ds max, so it CAN be done. The file does have a weird issue in 3dsmax too though, as in that a whole set of objects (which I would assume to be just a hierarchy) are fused together. Not just connected as one mesh, but actually welded at the vertices. I’m not sure if this helps troubleshooting in any way though.
EDIT: It does open in CAD Assistant, but only as “outlines” so to speak. It can’t display the file as shaded, and when I try to export it to a mesh format, it states that there’s “No mesh data to save”. I guess that file doesn’t contain properly defined solids or surfaces? At least 3ds max manages to convert these into meshes that render fine…
Take the price you need. There are Addons, that are worth less than yours… Don’t forget to place your Addon at Blender Market. There should be a lot people who are interested in this.
I’d love to have objects imported with parented hierachies since the files sometimes contain hierarchies that make a lot of sense. For example a steering system in a car where the rotation of the e.g. front wheels is set up on each wheel, but the front axis is above in the hierarchy and can be parented to a spline. Same with a .stp file I have of a robot where the joints already make sense. That’d be a great addition to the addon. It’s really working great and with each itereation it becomes more complete. Great work! It’s a real gem.
Thanks for the work you’re putting into your addon! And the really quick updates.
I agree with @Taros, put it on the Blender Market, and advertise it on the other Blender websites.
One small thing: could you make the input fields (scale, merge distance, etc.) at least one character longer? So that a value of 0.001 is also visible? I believe many users will be using a scale of 0.001, as that is the conversion from many CAD software (units in millimeters) to Blender (default units in meters).
Do you know what units these values represent? For example, is an angular deflection of 0.5 equal to 0.5 degrees, or 0.5 radians (~57°), or is it a percentage 50% of something?
Do you see a way to “translate” the reduction values from two cryptic values like “0,5” or whatever, let’s say to a slider that represents a factor from 0 - 100% for regular users.
A single slider would be much easier for everybody to understand. You can keep the two current reduction values as a kind of advanced mode.
Ok, first thing: No import option, no progress bar. Took a bit like 5 times longer than import same file in Moi3D.
The overall meshing is quite irregular and mostly triangulated.
Import orientation was wrong, I miss a Y/Z axis import option.
The scale was much too big. Original was ‘mm’ and in Blender it became meters. So 1000 times bigger. It should be in some container/null object after import to adjust scaling easier.
