Stretching a Part in One Dimension

[magicniner]

Apologies gentleman as I'm sure this has been covered previously but this week it seems my Search-Fu is weak so I throw myself upon your mercy!

I have an STL solid which I'd like to stretch out slightly longer in one dimension but it's beyond me to work out how.
I'm using V25 but sometime soon I'll be running my limited time trial of V29 if this is something which would be best done in a later version?

- Nick

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[RCaffin]

Search on G51: set axis scale factors.

Cheers
Roger

[The Engine Guy]

Nick

As far as I am aware you cannot work with/alter an STL file in BobCAD other than to use as a Stock Solid.

I may well be wrong but I have not found a way to do that in BobCAD, you really need either a .STEP or .IGES file that you can manipulate in BobCAD.

Burrman is the bloke to answer this one, he knows all about how these differnet file formats work/or not

Regards
Rob
:rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro:

[magicniner]

Thanks guys!
It doesn't have to stay as an STL while I fiddle with it but I'll have to save it out as an STL again once modified as it's for, dare I say it, a 3D printing job and the software I'm using requires objects in the .step file format,
Regards,
Nick

[The Engine Guy]

Thanks guys!
It doesn't have to stay as an STL while I fiddle with it but I'll have to save it out as an STL again once modified as it's for, dare I say it, a 3D printing job and the software I'm using requires objects in the .step file format,
Regards,
Nick

Nick

If you do have the file in .STEP format then from V28 onward you would be able to stretch the solid in any of the three usual Axis individually using the "Non Uniform Scale" facility found under the Utilities tab, unfortunately that facility doesn`t exist in V25 so sorry can`t be done with what you have

Regards
Rob

[BurrMan]

Thanks guys!
It doesn't have to stay as an STL while I fiddle with it but I'll have to save it out as an STL again once modified as it's for, dare I say it, a 3D printing job and the software I'm using requires objects in the .step file format,
Regards,
Nick

Bobcad wont manipulate the stl beyond a uniform scaling.

"Stretch" the stl? I can help you through that part if you like. You'll need to work in a poly environment. Easy enough. I can help you with a solution/workflow.

""""My software requires step"""""""

Can you clarify this part please? The software you're trying to manipulate the stl with? Or the final result software?

"Converting" your stl to a step file is pretty much a no go. While it "can" be done, there wont be any benefit, the model will be unwieldy, and WHY would be a common question....

Let me know if you need more help with it.

[The Engine Guy]

Thanks guys!
It doesn't have to stay as an STL while I fiddle with it but I'll have to save it out as an STL again once modified as it's for, dare I say it, a 3D printing job and the software I'm using requires objects in the .step file format,
Regards,
Nick

P.S. if you do have a copy of the file in .STEP or .IGES format then anyone with V28 onwards can stretch it for you if you are happy to upload the file, if not then I am happy for you to email the file assuming it isn`t too big for the mail servers and I will stretch it for you

Regards
Rob

[BurrMan]

Bobcad wont manipulate the stl beyond a uniform scaling.
.

INCORRECT!!!!

lol.
V29 non uniform scaling works on STL's now!

So the answer in the original question was yes, the newer version does do this. I didn't try V28.

[BurrMan]

V28 does NOT.

[magicniner]

Rob, BurrMan, Many Thanks!
I'll add this to things to try in the fully functional trial period when I install V29 trial,
Regards,
Nick

[BurrMan]

Rob, BurrMan, Many Thanks!
I'll add this to things to try in the fully functional trial period when I install V29 trial,
Regards,
Nick

Cool. If you want to 1d scale your stl RIGHT NOW, you can get meshlab for free and do it in there, then save the stl back out for bobcad...

None of this will do anything about "step' though...

[magicniner]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I've discovered that the quickest route to a good part will be to model it myself, it seems the guy who modelled the part I've been fiddling with made it incredibly and unnecessarily complex as well as incorrectly sized.
It's a learning and growing experience ;-)