Export suddenly doesn't work for certain models

[andrigtmiller]

I have never had a problem with exporting to STEP or STL before, but yesterday I noticed that my STEP export on one model was failing silently. It wouldn't give any error message, but no file would be written.

Then, as a test, I decided to export to STL, which I do all the time, and that fails with an error message saying:

Export Failed
Can't determine mesh formal from file name: <insert file name here>

Whenever the above happens STEP files can't be exported either, but they fail silently. This makes it hard to 3D print the things I'm working on. This happens on the latest release version of 0.18, and the latest 0.19 development. I'm using the development branch, because the latest release version is broken on the latest Fedora Linux.

Here is what is in the report view:

11:50:58 Loading Mesh module... done
11:50:58 Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 4, in <module>
<class 'Base.FreeCADError'>: Can't determine mesh format from file name: '/home/andrigtmiller/Documents/Andrig's Aircooled Technology/CAD/BayWindowBusGaugePanelProfileTest'

Version information:

OS: Fedora 33 (Workstation Edition) (GNOME/gnome)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.23578 (Git) AppImage
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 50c3cbf00579dc4941ca743c25720d016b0453ce
Python version: 3.8.6
Qt version: 5.12.5
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.4.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)


I have attached a model that I need to 3D print to test out the shape of a more complex model. It's super simple. Can't understand why it's failing.

[Kunda1]

Can you reproduce with a previous revision of 0.19?

[andrigtmiller]

Yes, it happens on the previous version of 0.19 as well. It does not appear to be specific to any particular version.

I was able to reproduce on 0.18 as well, even though it's broken on Fedora 33. The menus don't render correctly, but I was able to use the short cut keys to export, and I get the same issue.

So, on three different versions it happens.

[kisolre]

What happens if you add the extension to the file name manually? So instead of entering "Test" as export file name you enter "Test.stl"?

[thomas-neemann]

I would test it out of the box without macros, it works for me

[andrigtmiller]

What happens if you add the extension to the file name manually? So instead of entering "Test" as export file name you enter "Test.stl"?

Well, I just tried it, with manually putting the .stl file extension on, and it worked. I opened the STL file to see if it seemed valid and it does.

Weird. Why would it do this on some models and not others?

[andrigtmiller]

I would test it out of the box without macros, it works for me

I don't have an macros, I just use the AppImage as is, and I have only changed a few defaults here and there.

[kisolre]

Why would it do this on some models and not others?

I remember that there should be option to use native file dialog or not and one added the extensions and the other did not... or something like that. Why it will be file dependent I have no idea.

[andrigtmiller]

Could be, but at least I know how to work around the issue now.

Thanks to everyone for the help. This saved my work day!

Very much appreciated!

[chrisb]

Using 0.18 and 0.19 in parallel can in some rare cases mess up your config. You can try to reset the configuration with the button in the preferences. Another possibility is to delete your config files or to move them in case you want to restore them.