BluewingFreeCAD 1.1 is out
zipsglacierYes! FreeCAD is amazing and these updates look great. I don’t know why so many people are taking this chance to complain about it. You don’t have to use it!
The confidence that it won’t be paywalled, or enshittified, or otherwise screwed over by a corporation is worth a lot to me, but I think it’s fine if that’s not the case for everyone. Enjoy whatever else you want to use. Improvements in FreeCAD can only be good for everyone, right?!
I’ve done all my work in Freecad for years. Its really good at converting a stl back in to a solid. Some think its hard to do but its really easy and consistent. Some take more steps than others but its a solid tool for doing a rework on a 3d printable object. I can in a matter of minutes usually split a stl into separate models for multi color printing.
What’s you’re workflow for this? I have a handful of stls I would love to tweak.
This is going to be a upside down work flow since it varies depending on what you are trying to achieve. If you want to split an object up in order to make it a multi part/color print then start with 1a otherwise start with 1
Start with a new document
import stl file
Under the part menu convert to ‘shape from mesh’
Under the part menu in the copy menu click ‘refine shape’ not required but I find it sometimes makes the resulting solid a little smoother.
Under the part menu click ‘Convert to solid’
If all step are successful you are done. If not then delete everything and start back with the mesh. The most common error for me is ‘Cannot convert because Shape is not a shell’
1a. Under the mesh menu click ‘Split by components’ There are also some repairs you can make on a mesh under analyze. I rarely use these but have had some success with them from time to time. This will create at least two component meshes. I’ve had many more than that and at some point it isn’t worth it at least for me.
2a .Perform steps 1 through 5 on all components. Under the part menu select all the components and use the union tool to create a fusion of them.