Working with .stl files

[Moobs_Otoole]

Hi I am working on a project where I am taking scans of the two pieces of a broken weld and trying to put them back together and I'm wondering if there is any program that can do this?

 

Some more information, I welded two pieces of metal together and then broke the weld. I then scanned the two pieces. Now I am trying to recreate a water tight model of the two welds together. The file format currently is .stl

[Dadgad]

Welcome to the forum.

Very interesting, sorry I can't help you with that, but be patient somebody will be able to.

Sounds like it might be a job for INVENTOR.

[Alex Moiceanu]

What software do you use to put the pieces together?

[Moobs_Otoole]

I haven't been able to find anything yet. I've tried editing the .stl file of the mesh but I haven't found a good way to do that. I also looked into converting the mesh in the .stl file into a solid but I also haven't found a program that will help me either. The problems are

1. The mesh contains around 150,000 points so conversion into a solid format creates a gigantic file

2. The edge of the weld is not a straight line so I need to find a program that smart enough to connect two jagged lines.

3. The final combined weld needs to be water tight because I'm going to be running tests on it in Abaqus

[tzframpton]

I always just drag/drop the STL file directly into the Modelspace drawing area in AutoCAD and it imports just fine as a 3D Solid. Have you tried this?

[ReMark]

Sounds like the OP needs a program that will weld the two pieces together. AutoCAD doesn't have that capability.

[tzframpton]

Ah, you're right Mark. Sorry for the confusion.

[JD Mather]

I always just drag/drop the STL file directly into the Modelspace drawing area in AutoCAD and it imports just fine as a 3D Solid. Have you tried this?

 

Can you post an example of this?

[JD Mather]

I also looked into converting the mesh in the .stl file into a solid but I also haven't found a program that will help me either. The problems are

1. The mesh contains around 150,000 points so conversion into a solid format creates a gigantic file

2. The edge of the weld is not a straight line so I need to find a program that smart enough to connect two jagged lines.

3. The final combined weld needs to be water tight because I'm going to be running tests on it in Abaqus

 

Do you have deep pockets - make that very deep pockets?

[JD Mather]

I always just drag/drop the STL file directly into the Modelspace drawing area in AutoCAD and it imports just fine as a 3D Solid. Have you tried this?

 

Here is a simple sphere.stl

can you demonstrate how to get this as a solid in AutoCAD?

Sphere.zip