export to dxf

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bobcdy
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Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:29 pm

export to dxf

Post by bobcdy » Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:39 pm

I'm new to Stella 4D, but am impressed with the quality of the program. I have one question so far. I exported a polyhedron as dxf for use in my Corel Designer (that has a filter for dxf), and wonder if it is possible to export only the exterior lines and vertices of the image rather than the confusing reverse side ones. The front and reverse lines/vertices combo are confusing to me and I'd like a vector-format image of the solid polyhedron that I see on the screen of Stella. I looked at the manual but there was little about dxf export.

bobcdy
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:29 pm

3d export to dxf

Post by bobcdy » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:34 am

OK, I think I finally figured that the '3d' means the dxf export will always have all edges and vertices, although in a 2D export such as a gif, all of the back edges/vertices are hidden... so I need to use autocad to hide all the unwanted lines. This works pretty well but there are many different lines of different colors that do not correspond to edges between faces - for example yellow, green, and gray, and in addition there seems to be two superimposed blue lines that do correspond to the face edges. With an autocad export to wmf files I can produce a fine-looking solid drawing although it takes some editing to get rid of the extra edges and lines. Is there a way to force the 3d export to dxf to produce only a single line corresponding to face edges and to not produce all the other extra lines?

Thanks for your help.

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robertw
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Post by robertw » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:14 am

Models are exported with all their 3D coordinates to the 3D DXF format. I'm not even sure what would happen if you then try to import it into a 2D package like Corel Designer. I guess the simple answer is no, you can't hide edges from the back of the model when exporting to DXF. Being a 3D model it doesn't even make sense, since Stella does not know from which direction the model will be viewed (it is intended for export to a 3D package).

Rob.

bobcdy
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:29 pm

Post by bobcdy » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:04 pm

Thanks for the info. I'm having good luck exporting to dxf and using Autocad2009 to change orientations and take care of hidden lines. I'm still puzzled, though, by all the extra lines of various colors that 3d export produces in the dxf image that have nothing to do with face edges and vertices. I can edit them out using Corel Designer but it takes some time to do this. Is there a way to export ONLY the edges and vertices and not the extra lines (these line connect corners of the faces although there is a duplicate set of face edges that are also produced)
Bob

bobcdy
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:29 pm

3d export to dxf

Post by bobcdy » Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:58 pm

Still having trouble with the 3d export to dxf. I tried augumenting a 5-pyramid to produce a dipyramid. Seemed to work fine and exported to a wrl file perfectly, but when I tried the dxf format, it exported only the original pyramid, and seemed unable to export the bottom half that had showed after saving as a stel file and exporting as a vrml file. It seems that the dxf filter has some problems?? Or perhaps I don't fully understand what I'm doing although the perfert vrml export seems to suggest the dipyramid is fully formed.
Bob

bobcdy
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:29 pm

3d export to dxf

Post by bobcdy » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:14 pm

Found a solution to the problem of faulty dxf export - exported to wrl, then used a translator, AccuTrans3D, to save the wrl file to dxf. This dxf has all the parts visible that it should, and using the Autocad hide, I can get rid of all the hidden lines. Using Autocad, I finally export the image as a .wmf file. All is well now with augmented polyhedra exports as with the non-augmented ones. The odd extra colored lines are easy to edit out in Corel Designer.
Bob

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