LDView STL Export

[Tore Eriksson]

How come only color 16 shows up when an LDraw file has been exported to STL using LDView? All other colors go invisible. Is that intentional? (The data is still there though, since the STL file is good for the 3D pinter anyway).

And no, it's not a BFC issue; all I have to do is change the color to 16 and it shows the surface again.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5oxvdy4qrks5xww/LDView_STL_Export.jpg

[url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/5oxvdy4qrks5xww/LDView_STL_Export.jpg?dl=0][/url]

[Travis Cobbs]

How come only color 16 shows up when an LDraw file has been exported to STL using LDView? All other colors go invisible. Is that intentional? (The data is still there though, since the STL file is good for the 3D pinter anyway).

And no, it's not a BFC issue; all I have to do is change the color to 16 and it shows the surface again.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5oxvdy4qrks5xww/LDView_STL_Export.jpg

[url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/5oxvdy4qrks5xww/LDView_STL_Export.jpg?dl=0][/url]

LDView only supports ASCII STL, and ASCII STL doesn't support colors. So LDView should totally ignore all color information in the LDraw file when exporting to STL. At a given level in the LDraw file hierarchy, the colored shapes get exported after the non-colored (color 16) ones, but other than that, there should be no difference in how they are treated. If you send me the original LDraw file and the generated STL file, I can investigate.

[Tore Eriksson]

How come only color 16 shows up when an LDraw file has been exported to STL using LDView? All other colors go invisible. Is that intentional? (The data is still there though, since the STL file is good for the 3D pinter anyway).

And no, it's not a BFC issue; all I have to do is change the color to 16 and it shows the surface again.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5oxvdy4qrks5xww/LDView_STL_Export.jpg

[url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/5oxvdy4qrks5xww/LDView_STL_Export.jpg?dl=0][/url]

LDView only supports ASCII STL, and ASCII STL doesn't support colors. So LDView should totally ignore all color information in the LDraw file when exporting to STL. At a given level in the LDraw file hierarchy, the colored shapes get exported after the non-colored (color 16) ones, but other than that, there should be no difference in how they are treated. If you send me the original LDraw file and the generated STL file, I can investigate.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cump9f3fseapeo...e.zip?dl=0

[Philippe Hurbain]

Looks like you should update your LDView to latest version (4.2). I also have missing surfaces when I export with 4.1 but it's OK with 4.2.

[Travis Cobbs]

Looks like you should update your LDView to latest version (4.2). I also have missing surfaces when I export with 4.1 but it's OK with 4.2.

Philo is correct. When I export your file using the official 4.2 release of LDView, the extra faces show up. And the following is listed in LDView's change history as one of the bug fixes for version 4.2:

• Fixed STL export problem where some colored geomtry would not be exported.
  

Please note that as far as I know, the faces weren't transparent before, but missing entirely.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Please note that as far as I know, the faces weren't transparent before, but missing entirely.

Completely missing indeed. I compared 4.1/4.2 stl export text files...

[Tore Eriksson]

Please note that as far as I know, the faces weren't transparent before, but missing entirely.

Completely missing indeed. I compared 4.1/4.2 stl export text files...

Thank you! Upgrading to 4.2 made the trick. The very strange thing is that the slicer program somehow seems to notice the missing faces, or can it really assume that there must be faces there? It seems very unlikely. Never mind, it's not really important. Problem solved.

Pic: Thermometer house front printed from STL with missing(?)/invisable polygons.