IsoSurface (Implicit surface)

Discussion in 'Materials' started by 9833_deleted, Oct 12, 2008.

  1. 9833_deleted
    9833_deleted Member
    I have a 3D object I would like to make a model of, but it is defined as an IsoSurface (Implicit surface - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit_surface ).

    Is it possible to generate a model from this directly instead of having to convert it to a polygon mesh first?
     
  2. bartv
    bartv Member
    Hi xlcus,

    yes, you'll have to convert it to a polygon mesh. I'm not aware of any tools that could do that for you. If you know of any, please let me know!

    Cheers,

    Bart
     
  3. 4808_deleted
    4808_deleted Member
    Many file formats support implicit surface definitions. We don't support those currently as most of those file formats are not well defined mathematically in their implicit surface definitions (the original editor knows how to treat them, but the file format is reverse engineered so we don't have good details of specifics, particularly of the blending between surfaces). :cry:
     
  4. 20127_deleted
    20127_deleted Member
    You can use Mathematica to both display your implicit surface and then export it as an STL file.

    Something like:

    plt = ContourPlot3D[...you implicit surface details...]
    Export["myobject.stl",plt,"STL"]

    The surface likely has its normals pointing in
    the wrong direction.

    Use Meshlab to fix it.
     
  5. frankbuss
    frankbuss Member