Joseph DeGuglielmo writes:
> 1)Could someone briefly explain how this process works and what its
> limits are?
> 2)What systems are compatible and which are not?
Excuse me, but before one can answer such questions, we need to clarify
something about IGES. IGES permits one to represent a variety of geometrical
objects:
1. As pointed out by Mr. Todd, the IGES file may contain a wireframe.
Wireframes are *ambiguous* and it is impossible to convert them to solids
automatically. Even an experienced CAD operator may derive the wrong model
without input from the designer.
2. It may contain a cloud of points. The problem, then, is in the domain of
reverse engineering. There are specialized tools for this.
3. It may contain a set of cross-sections. If they represent, say, a medical
model, then, again, there a specialized tools for this too.
4. It may contain a solid model represented as a Brep or CSG tree. Well, again,
the technology for facetting a solid model is an old one in CAD and
approximation theory.
5. It may contain a description of a surface model. There is a lot of
literature on this one too.
And so on. As you can see, IGES can be used for several purposes, and there
is no single method to convert a generic IGES file to STL.
Regards, Andre'
-- Helsinki University of Technology voice/fax: +358-0-4513239/4513293 Institute of Industrial Automation e-mail: ado@mail.cs.hut.fi Otakaari 1, Espoo, FIN-02150 Finland http://www.cs.hut.fi/~ado/
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