Hide drawing planes in imported STEP?

[Dale Mahalko]

I just downloaded FreeCAD tonight, to try to convert a STEP into a mesh for other non-CAD 3D editors. I am not at all familiar with FreeCAD, but I have used other CAD before.

The STEP is massive, 147 megabytes, a model of the Ultimaker 3 Extended 3D printer. It can be downloaded here:
https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker3 ... 20extended

When you open it, FreeCAD will apparently hang, says Not Responding. It's not dead, it's just working really really really hard. Find something else to do for about ten minutes or so.

(I filed a bug report, it should show some sort of progress bar and not hang like this in a manner that annoys Windows.)

,

So anyway I don't need this device model in all its detailed glory for my project, just the general outer shape is fine.

I went through the project, selecting stuff with the mouse and hitting the delete key, and selecting outer panels I want to keep, and hiding them with space bar.

After deleting huge numbers of internal parts, I wanted to once again see it with the exterior parts visible again.

I went into the menus to View - Visibility -> Show All Objects.... and suddenly I get this mess thrown in my face:



,

I do not know what I am looking at now, but apparently these are the things named "Origin001" .. "Axis090" .. etc on the model tree.

I can not figure out how to hide or delete all of them. There does not seem to be any menu option for "Hide all origin / working planes".

Also, they were not visible when the STEP was initially opened, so I do not know why Show All suddenly made them appear.

[chrisb]

Hi Dale, welcome to the forum.
(I filed a bug report, it should show some sort of progress bar and not hang like this in a manner that annoys Windows.)

You are very fast with creating a bug report before having approved your first post! And you ignored the really HUGE banner in the bug tracker telling you how to proceed. Before creating your next bug report, please read how to do so: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5236 . Discuss here if it is a bug at all (it is not, it's a feature request), check with the most recent version (you did not), check if a previous similar ticket exists (I'm pretty sure it does). Sorry for being that frank, it's a riddle to me how people start learning a new software start with a bug report right away. Now we can discuss your issue described here:

I went into the menus to View - Visibility -> Show All Objects.... and suddenly I get this mess thrown in my face:

The step file contains several parts each having its own origin. FreeCAD is clever enough not to show them initially. When you say "Show All Objects" FreeCAD does as it is told and shows everything. You should have selected just the top level parts and toggle their visibility with the space bar.

[chrisb]

issue #3697
I have to correct my guess from above: I searched but could not find a previous ticket.

[Dale Mahalko]

I searched the bug reports for "not responding" ... no results.

After trying to import again, I see there is a progress bar in the bottom right, but it doesn't work properly, it updates.... the program hangs and goes gray with (Not responding) in the title bar, for a random long length of time, then progress bar lurches an update and the program window becomes "solid", but again hangs and goes gray with (Not responding) in the title bar... several times.


This project I am trying to do appears to be a failure. I will have to try to find some other program that can convert STEP into other formats.

I got to the point of deleting everything but the outermost visible shells/rods, then tried to export into something Sketchup understands. The only export I can find is Collada, but that bugs out trying to export. I have already stepped on toes, so I am not going to report this.

"Export failed: local variable 'vindex' referenced before assignment."



EDIT: If you want to see where I ended up with the export error, this is the result, 15 megabytes:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P1elEi ... sp=sharing

My knowledge of FreeCAD is minimal. I don't see how to edit the surface features of objects and remove screw holes in the panels.

[UR_]

For hiding origin's stuff I usually take this tiny macro:

Code: Select all

# Hides all objects from active document, if name starts with "Origin"


doc = App.ActiveDocument

if doc != None:
    Objects = doc.Objects
    
    for object in Objects:
        if object.Name.startswith(u"Origin"):
             print ("found:", object.Name)
             object.ViewObject.Visibility = False

print ("Works only with an active document")

HideOrigins.FCMacro

(360 Bytes) Downloaded 47 times

EDIT: File updated, sorry old version

[easyw-fc]

I just downloaded FreeCAD tonight, to try to convert a STEP into a mesh for other non-CAD 3D editors. I am not at all familiar with FreeCAD, but I have used other CAD before.

The STEP is massive, 147 megabytes, a model of the Ultimaker 3 Extended 3D printer. It can be downloaded here:
https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker3 ... 20extended

When you open it, FreeCAD will apparently hang, says Not Responding. It's not dead, it's just working really really really hard. Find something else to do for about ten minutes or so.

(I filed a bug report, it should show some sort of progress bar and not hang like this in a manner that annoys Windows.)

As you noted, this is a huge STEP file... hanging in loading is a 'normal' behavior for this kind of files, also in proprietary CAD sw.
Implementing the progress bar in this phase will increase the loading time.
There are already discussions at this forum on this 'issue'..

This project I am trying to do appears to be a failure. I will have to try to find some other program that can convert STEP into other formats.

I got to the point of deleting everything but the outermost visible shells/rods, then tried to export into something Sketchup understands.

so the failure is in Sketchup that cannot import STEP natively and not in FreeCAD that can import it just fine.

The only export I can find is Collada, but that bugs out trying to export. I have already stepped on toes, so I am not going to report this.

"Export failed: local variable 'vindex' referenced before assignment."

This may depend on what you did on your 'refined' model.
BTW you forgot to follow the main forum rules as stated above:

Forum rules
and Helpful information
IMPORTANT: Please click here and read this first, before asking for help

[easyw-fc]

BTW simplifying the object is possible and here a screenshot of the FreeCAD exported STL object

9511-simple-stl.png (623.58 KiB) Viewed 1964 times

[meme2704]

I get this mess thrown in my face

This is the mess when we do not place all the components on the same origin (at best a maximum)
There are some who say gnagnagna it's not worth it ....