Free Android STL file viewer

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by BarryThomas, Aug 7, 2011.

  1. BarryThomas
    BarryThomas Member
    Hi All

    I'm not sure if this belongs here, not being about a model exactly [mods feel free to relocate if that's the case]...

    Announcement: FREE Android STL file viewer here (Android Market). Or read a bit about it on my web site here.

    Currently limited to 150k triangles, mainly due to memory limitations on Android phones, but I'm looking at ways to increase that.

    Feature requests welcome!

    Baz.
     
  2. DrJekyll
    DrJekyll Member
    This works great and is very smooth on My Samsung Galaxy S2 but I have one issue that is not the apps fault but you might be able to fix it. I use C4D and I think it has a bug with reversed normals when exporting stl files. Because of this some apps onlly show the back side of the normals, shapeways old renders used to do this with my stl files. I just need to remember to flip them before I export to fix any problems but it would be great if your app had an option to do this.

    I'm looking forward to future devlopmens of this program, keep up the good work.

     
  3. BarryThomas
    BarryThomas Member
    Interesting! I think flipping all normals might be a quick add-on, allowing for inconsistent nomals might be beyond the scope of a viewer app. I'll have a look next week and report back.

    B.
     
  4. BarryThomas
    BarryThomas Member
    Just uploaded a new version, adding 'invert normals' to the main menu. Of course it doesn't change the file itself, it just changes the display, so at least if your file looks funny and inverting the normals makes it right, you know you need to go and rebuild the file with consistent normals.

    B.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2011
  5. Youknowwho4eva
    Youknowwho4eva Well-Known Member
    I moved to interesting links, "Feature this" is more for models to feature. Making a clear description of the sections is in the works.

    Any chance of exporting it out to be an iPhone app? :p
     
  6. BarryThomas
    BarryThomas Member
    Thanks for the move.

    iPhone: I have a plan. It won't happen for a few months, but yes, I'd like to port the app to the iPhone. Let me get to v1.1 on Android first... ;)

    B.
     
  7. BarryThomas
    BarryThomas Member
    I'm now trying to gather some speed statistics for my STL viewer. Have a look here:

    <a href="http://www.architecture3d.co.uk/stl/speedtest.html" target="_blank"></a>

    I'm looking for speeds on loading a particular file (available on the web site) and for users' own files, so I can compare model loading times on as many different devices as possible.

    All the data to be published on my web site.

    Many thanks for any help.

    B.


     
  8. BarryThomas
    BarryThomas Member
    A bunch of new features have been added to the free version of the app and the Pro version is now available! (https://market.android.com/details?id=barry.stlviewerpro)

    Free: Now has pan as well as zoom and rotate; save a screenshot to SDcard; better lighting; a nice progress bar to show the file is loading.

    Pro: adds loading and viewing point cloud files from 3d scanners (up to 16million points with point filtering); convert ASCII point clouds and STL files to binary; save an STL file as a (vertex) point cloud file.

    The free version will freeze now, all new features will go into the Pro version.

    A snip at £2!

    Feature requests still welcome!

    Barry.
     
  9. dbgarlisch
    dbgarlisch Member
    I have tried the app on a MyTouch 4G slide.

    It works fine on small models. But I have some larger models that cause it to hang and eventually crash.

    Any suggestions on how to fix/workaround this?

    try this WING grid model:
    https://www.shapeways.com/model/216742/wing.html


    [quote title=bt@barrythomas.co.uk wrote on Mon, 10 October
    Feature requests still welcome!
    Barry.[/quote]
     
  10. BarryThomas
    BarryThomas Member
    Hi DB

    That's a pretty large file (19mb) and saved as ASCII and it contains multiple STL models. If you save it in binary format in your modelling package as a single model it will load fine. I converted it in MeshLab and the binary version is down to 4.5mb, all one model and looks really nice on my Desire S in STLViewer.

    Screenshot attached.

    B.
     

    Attached Files: