Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
(OP)
Hello,
I am trying to calculate the coefficient of drag of a couple of components. This is only a very basic CFD analysis that I want to undertake.
To calculate the coefficient of drag, I would like to find the largest cross sectional area of the model.
The models that I have been supplied with are .stl files, which I understand are sterolitograhy models. I do not have access to the original models.
Is there anyway of finding the cross sectional area of a .stl file within solidworks?
I have tried to extract the edges of the model and then I was going to project them onto a surface, but I cannot extract the edges of the model.
Many Thanks
I am trying to calculate the coefficient of drag of a couple of components. This is only a very basic CFD analysis that I want to undertake.
To calculate the coefficient of drag, I would like to find the largest cross sectional area of the model.
The models that I have been supplied with are .stl files, which I understand are sterolitograhy models. I do not have access to the original models.
Is there anyway of finding the cross sectional area of a .stl file within solidworks?
I have tried to extract the edges of the model and then I was going to project them onto a surface, but I cannot extract the edges of the model.
Many Thanks






RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
"The STL model has too many surfaces - Please import this model as a Graphics body"
I presume that my supplied model is generated with too many surfaces and I need to get the number of surfaces reduced?
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
Alternatives to consider. SW will bring in lots of points. You can use programs like accutrans to convert the stl into xyz's and just import all the verticies into SW through the use of the points import macro. thread559-183201: Import point cloud.
These points can be used in combo with the graphics body to build your profile.
Rhino is free for 25 saves http://www.rhino3d.com/ . You can use it to make a cross sections. You basically need a different tool to work with poly's though.
Do you want to use cosmos to calculate the drag or do you have other FEA tools?
rfus
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
rfus - I will have a look at the import point cloud and rhino. Many Thanks
I am using Phoenics to calculate the drag, but i want the frontal area to have an estimate of the answer using some hand calcs.
cheers
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
I will try and look at it myself and if i have any problems i will let you know.
Thank you very much
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
If you are interested in volume then take smaller slices import the sketches to planes and create lines and build the part from there.
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
We purchased a license of Rhino so that we could work with it.
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
exporting a grid in stl format creates twice as many triangles as there are grid nodes. found 100K to be the limit.
rfus
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
"assume a spherical cow . . . "
--
Hardie "Crashj" Johnson
SW 2008 SP4
Nvidia Quadro FX 1000
AMD Athalon 1.8 GHz 2 Gig RAM
RE: Cross Sectional Area of a .stl file
Doesn't your method assume that the STL file can be imported with the solid body option enabled? If the STL can be imported in this manner the cross section can be generated directly with no need to use the cavity function. Did I miss something???