From the course: SOLIDWORKS: Importing Geometry From Other Applications

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Importing an STL file

Importing an STL file - SOLIDWORKS Tutorial

From the course: SOLIDWORKS: Importing Geometry From Other Applications

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Importing an STL file

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- Now that technologies like 3d printing are more accessible to students, educators, manufacturers, and designers, the handling of STL files has become more and more crucial to the design process. Unlike other files, like STEP files, IGES files, and Parasolid files, an STL file is actually a MeSH and not solid geometry. So Solidworks has to do some additional work to convert it into something that we can use in our designs. So let's walk through the process of importing an STL into Solidworks. I'm going to start by navigating to my STL file through the open dialog box. So as of Windows 10 you'll notice that here where my STL file is listed the type does not say STL. So they've changed it so that all 3D printer type files are now listed as 3D objects. You're going to have to be careful when selecting your file. I know for a fact that the only 3D object in this folder is an STL file. But you might have object files, MakerBot type files, or any other type of file that might be used for…

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