"Model is not manifold" according to Shapeways but in Meshlab & Netfabb no issue is re

Hi,

After Upload the stl file, Shapeways tells me "Model is not manifold.", but Meshlab & Netfabb report all is OK:
Any clue how to proceed?

*Meshlab
vertices: 179,639
faces: 361,802

No Manifold Edges
0 non manifold edges
0 faces over non manifold edges

Non Manifold Vertices
0 non manifold vertices
0 faces over non manifold vertices

*Netfabb (before Meshlab repair)
triangles 180,901
edges 542,703
shells 1

holes 0
bad edges 0
boundary edges 0
flipped triangles 180,901

surface is closed: Yes
surface is orientable: No (from my experience this can be safely ignored as it only shows components 2nd or more usage in the file)

filesize: 17.2 MB
bounding box: 127.21 x 178.08 x 20.3 mm (aiming at FUD material, but don't reach that stage)

work procedure:
1. Sketchup -> save as STL
2. Netfabb repair -> save repaired file as STL
3. Meshlab repair Netfabb repaired file -> save repaired file as STL (get rid of some remaining non manifold vertices)
4. check last saved STL with Meshlab & Netfabb that all is fine
5. upload to Shapeways -> still get not manifold error

I'm not able to load this file into Blender, no clue why (a simple test thingy created via the same method has no problem to be shown).

Any ideas on how to proceed are welcome.

Thanks,
Robert

Do you still see the "surface not orientable" warning after fixing the flipped triangles ? Somehow I cannot believe that netfabb studio basic does not find anything wrong while shapeways' netfabb-derived software does. Perhaps try uploading at a different scale (specifying different units of measure) in case object size is completely wrong. Or perhaps your model contains a short stretch without any thickness, either single layer of triangles or both layers completely overlapping ?
(And a trivial idea - make sure that the file you upload is really the fixed and checked one, not an earlier version located in a different folder)

Hi,

Regarding the surface orientation.
Upon loading the original STL file into Netfabb, I get
Surface is closed: No
Surface is orientable:Yes
(and a lot of holes and shells)

Then I repair the file, and the result is
Surface is closed: Yes
Surface is orientable: No
(and no more holes and 1 shell only, but a lot of flipped triangles/invalid orientations)

Then go to Meshlab, and still find a bunch of non manifold vertices, so repair those.
After saving, check again in Netfabb (and Meshlab) if all is fine indeed.
Netfabb still reporting the invalid orientation, but the surface is still closed.

I did cleanup in Meshlab on zero size faces and did a normalise vertices, but still the same Shapeways error on not manifold...

And yes I'm using the latest file

I'm now trying to fix as much as I can in the source file, but with a few hundred issues, that is no fun.

Cheers,
Robert

I'd try correcting the triangle orientation in netfabb as well, instead of going back and forth between two programs.

Hi,

After temporarily removing one part that I suspect to cause a lot of issues and some intense manual fixing of issues on other parts
in the original file -as highlighted by Meshlab on the repaired file from Netfabb-, I managed to get the by Netfabb only repaired file
accepted by Shapeways this morning! This file includes many flipped triangles from inverted components.

So it seems to me that
- Meshlab checks better then Netfabb basic
- Shapeways checks better then Netfabb basic
- Netfabb basic repair still leaves issues
- Automatic fixes done by Meshlab and/or Netfabb basic don't guarantee the file will be accepted by Shapeways
- Flipped triangles caused by inverted components don't matter

I also noticed with Meshlab that more existing issues popped up, after other issues -somewhere else in the model- were fixed.

I will now have to manually fix the part I temporarily removed...and fix some thin walls identified by Shapeways...
but at least a first successful upload is achieved.

Cheers,
Robert