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How to Edit/Remix STL Files From Thingiverse – Fusion 360 & More – 3D Printerly

When it comes to 3D printing files, you may have a design that you love, but you want to make adjustments to or “remix”. It’s possible to remix STL files from Thingiverse with a fairly simple process of using software.

This article will look into how you can begin to edit and remix STL files yourself that are downloaded from places like Thingiverse, Cults3D, MyMiniFactory and plenty more, so stay tuned.

Before we get into the how-to, let’s get into a brief explanation of what people use to modify those 3D printer STL files.

Can You Edit & Modify an STL File?

You can definitely edit and modify STL files, and it can be done using two different types of modeling software:

1. CAD (Computer-Aided Design) Software
2. Mesh Editing Tools

CAD (Computer-Aided Design) Software

These types of software are specially designed for construction, precise measurements, and robust modeling.

CAD software was not designed while keeping 3D printing in mind and because of this reason, there are a few things that may differ in their labels or titles.

For example, circles are represented using polygons in 3D printing but in CAD software circles are represented with actual circle symbols.

Therefore, you may feel confused at first while editing on CAD software but with the time you will be able to edit and modify your STL files easily to a great extent.

Mesh Editing Tools

You can edit your STL files using mesh editing tools as well. Mesh editing tools are specially designed and developed for animation, modeling, and objects that are represented by 2D surfaces.

2D surface means the objects that only have a shell on the outer side and there isn’t any filling from inside.

These types of designs can result in thin shells that may not be able to get 3D printed, but can be done through editing and adjustments in these mesh editing tools.

With some simple operations, mesh editing tools can offer you great features and solutions when it comes to editing and modifying your STL files.

How to Edit & Modify an STL File with Software

STL files can be edited and modified by following a few simple steps no matter what type of software you are using for this purpose.

In simple words, you only have to import STL files into the editing software, make necessary changes, export files from the software.

Below is the detailed procedure of some of the best and most recommended software used for editing STL files.

• Fusion 360
• Blender
• Solidworks
• TinkerCAD
• MeshMixer

Fusion 360

Fusion 360 is considered as one of the best software for editing and modifying STL files. It is a popular and important tool as it allows its users to perform different types of operations in a single place.

It offers features so that you can create 3D models, run simulations, validate your 3D design models, manage data, and many other functions. This tool should be your go-to tool when it comes to editing and modifying your 3D models or STL files.

Step 1: Import STL File

• Click on the + button on the top bar to pick a new design.
• Click on the Create button from the menu bar and a drop-down menu will be displayed.
• By clicking on the Create Base Feature from the drop-down menu, it will turn off all the extra features and design history will not be recorded.
• Click on the Insert > Insert Mesh, browse your STL file, and open to import it.

Step 2: Edit & Modify STL File

• Once the file is imported, an Insert Design box will appear on the right side to change your model’s position using a mouse or inserting numerical inputs.
• Right-click on the model and click on Mesh to BRep > OK to convert it into a new body.
• Click on Model > Patch from the top left corner to remove unnecessary facets.
• Click Modify > Merge, select the facets you want to remove and click
• Click on Finish Base Feature to go back into regular mode.
• Click Modify > Change Parameters, click the + button, and modify parameters as you want.
• Click on Sketch and put a center using angles.
• Go to Create > Pattern > Pattern on Path, modify the settings and parameters according to your need.

Step 3: Export STL File

• Go to the save icon on the top bar, give a name to your file and click
• Go to the left side window, Right Click > Save as STL > OK > Save.

Check out the video below for a tutorial for modifying STL files.

Blender

Blender is an amazing software for editing and modifying your STL files downloaded from Thingiverse. It includes advanced tools for interpreting and smoothing the model’s surface.

You may feel a bit confused in the beginning because it includes various tools that make it look advanced but with time, you will realize that it is one of the more popular tools to import, edit and export STL files.

Step 1: Import STL File

• Go to the top menu bar and click on File > Import > STL and then open the file from browsing into your computer.

Step 2: Edit & Modify STL File

• Click on Object > Edit, to see all edges of your model.
• Press Alt+L to select all edges or right-click the edge to select individually.
• Press Alt+J to convert triangles into rectangles.
• Go to the search bar and type Subdivide or Un Subdivide to change the number of layers of tiles.
• To extrude, delete, or move different parts of your model, Go to the Options section and use different options such as Vertexes, Face Selected, or Edge.
• Click on Tools > Add, to add different shapes to the model.
• Use different options from the Tools section for editing and modification.

Step 3: Export STL File

• Simply click on File > Export > STL.

Solidworks

Solidworks software is being adopted rapidly by 3D printer users because of its amazing features. It allows the users to save their 3d Designed models in STL file format and provides features to edit and modify the STL files as well.

Solidworks is considered as one of the first software to bring 3D printing solutions for their users.

Step 1: Import STL File

• To import the STL, go to System Options > Import > File Format (STL) or simply Drag and Drop the file into the software window.

Step 2: Edit & Modify STL File

• Determine the vertices or parts that you want to edit and click Sketch from the top left corner.
• Select the Insert Line and create a construction line where required.
• Connect the midpoints of both construction lines and then oversize it to the extent that it intersects the actual STL file.
• Go to Features > Extrude, set your surface and parameters and click on the Green Check Mark.

Step 3: Export STL File

• Go to System Options > Export > Save.

You can get help from this video for a better understanding.

TinkerCAD

TinkerCAD is a software tool that is well suited for newbies. This software tool works on Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG). It means that it allows the users to create and edit complex 3D models by combining simple small objects.

This advancement of the TinkerCAD makes the creation and editing process easy and allows the user to edit and modify the STL files without any hassle.

Step 1: Import STL File

• Click on Import > Choose File, select the file, and click Open > Import.

Step 2: Edit & Modify STL File

• Drag and Drop Workplane from the helper section to add holes.
• Choose the geometric shape that you want to use for your model and resize it using the mouse.
• Put the ruler where you want to place the geometric shape and move it at the desired distance.
• Once you have reached the right position and measurement, Click on the Hole option from the Inspector
• Select the whole model and click Group from the menu bar.

Step 3: Export STL File

• Go to Design > Download for 3D Printing > .STL

Check out the video below for a nice visual of the process.

MeshMixer

This free mesh editing tool can be downloaded from the AutoDesk website. This is one of the favorite tools because of its easy operations and built-in slicer.

This slicer feature provides the users with additional ease as they can directly send their edited model in the STL format to their 3D printers to start the printing process.

Step 1: Import STL File

• Click on Import, browse your computer, and open the STL file.

Step 2: Edit & Modify STL File

• Click Select and mark different parts of your model.
• Press Del from the menu to delete or remove the unnecessary marked tiles.
• To open different forms for the model, go to the Meshmix
• You can select various options from the sidebar such as letters.
• Click on Stamp, choose the patterns, and draw them on the model using your mouse.
• To smooth or extrude different parts of the model, go to the Sculpt

Step 3: Export STL File

• Go to File > Export > File Format (.stl).

Hopefully you guys find this article helpful in finally learning how to edit those STL files to fit your vision on how you want them to look. I’d definitely recommend spending some time in your chosen software to really learn how to use it.

Fusion 360 seems to have the best capabilities in terms of technical and functional 3D prints, but for artistic, visual 3D prints, Blender and Meshmixer work great.

How to edit and modify the STL file for 3D printing? 10 Steps to Edit STL Files・Cults

Have you ever uploaded a Cults design and had a great idea to change it? Maybe engrave your name or image on one of the surfaces or add some extra detail? While .stl files are notoriously difficult to work with, there is software available to help you take control of them! Award-winning designer James Novak, aka edditive, took the time on his edditive.com blog to show us some basic free tools to quickly edit your prints.

The .stl files that our 3D printers use are notoriously difficult to edit. It's like taking a very low resolution pixelated image and trying to turn it into a large high resolution poster. Just not in 3D! Most of the CAD programs we use to create drawings (both free and commercial) can import and read . stl files, but only a few can modify them, except perhaps by changing the scale or position. However, there are many free tools that 3D printing enthusiasts need to know about if you want to make changes to the .stl file:0003

• Meshmixer (included in Autodesk's 123D package)
• MeshLab
• Blender (popular free CAD modeling software)

As with all other programs, there is no correct answer to the question "which one is better? This is a matter of personal opinion and depends on your previous experience with CAD software. However, in this article we will focus on Meshmixer due to its simplicity and clean interface, plus the fact that it's specifically designed for editing and repairing .stl files, making it easy to learn without complex menus full of tools you don't need for the task.Did I mention it's free?

Today we'll take a very simple tutorial on how to remove text from a downloaded Cults template and then add our own text in its place. For this example, I'll be using one of my own templates, which you can download for free from the 'Hex Phone Sound Amplifier' site so you don't accidentally offend anyone by changing its design! If you would like to follow along, please download the file to your computer or have another .stl file handy. You can also install the Meshmixer from the link, as well as the 3D CAD software of your choice, as we will need to create the 3D text separately.

1. Import model

Open Meshmixer and import the .stl file by going to File>Import. You can click and hold the right mouse button to rotate the model.

2. Planer cutting

To remove text from a flat surface, we can use the Cut To Plan tool located in the Edit menu on the left toolbar. Think of your model as a piece of clay and the Plane Cut tool as a piece of wire that we'll use to cut it in a straight line, removing one side of the cut.

3. Cut and fill

Use the rotation sliders and arrows to move the Planar Cut tool so that it is parallel to the front of the text model. It will take a little time to get a perfect fit, just zoom in and adjust the angle of the plane by fractions of a degree until you cut the material to the width of a hair, including the text (as shown in the image below). Clicking on the purple arrow inside the orbit toggles the cutting direction. If you leave the tool's default settings (Type: Cut, Fill: DelRefine) and press the Accept button, the tool will remove the text and automatically adjust the surface so that your model is always waterproof. This is the first work done.

4. Measure

The current version of Meshmixer (2.9) does not have a tool for adding text. Therefore, we will have to create a 3D text model and then import it into Meshmixer. To get the size of our text, go to Analyze>Measure and use the "Point to Point" option to measure the size of the face you want to apply the text to. Enabling the Snap to Edges option helps, and in my experience you may have to try a few different tools to get the measurement you're looking for - it's not the best measurement tool. For this model, the front panel is just over 20mm high, shown to the right of the window.

5. Text for the 3D model

It's time to create our text. Use the 3D modeling software of your choice to create custom text using the height measured in Meshmixer as a guide. For this example, I'll be using another free CAD tool called Tinkercad, which runs entirely in your web browser, so no download is required. I will not go into the details of the creation of this text, otherwise this tutorial will quickly turn into a book! The main thing is that you take into account the dimensions of the text (for this example, I made it 15 mm high so that it fits comfortably on the face to which it will be applied in Meshmixer) and extrude it with a thickness of 3 mm. Once you're satisfied, export the file to .stl format to prepare it for import into Meshmixer.

6. Import

Now you can import your text into the original Meshmixer template. Make sure you select the Add in popup option so that both templates are in the same workspace. You will now have a new Object Browser window available for you to choose between the two files, shown on the top right of the image below.

7. Find

Obviously, now we want to rotate and position the text. This is easily done from the Edit>Transform menu, bringing up the same arrows we used earlier for Plane Cut. Use the arrows to move the text and the arc to rotate it. As you get closer, keep zooming in until the text is inside the selected area - if gaps remain, the two models won't merge together properly, which can lead to 3D printing errors. If the imported text is too large, you can use the small margins at the ends of the arrows to scale it to your needs. Click Accept when done.

8. Merge

Just because your two models intersect on the screen doesn't mean they are actually connected. If you look at the object browser window, you will see that the two models are separated. Meshmixer has several options for connecting them, and these options will appear when you select two models together in the Object Browser (using shift-click) and then on the Edit menu. Technically, we should use a boolean union to merge them (or a boolean diff if you want the text to be cut out of the surface as a relief detail), but the result seems to be very low resolution and will change the text. Instead, we'll use Combine, which still won't join the shapes together correctly, but will merge them into one file. For many 3D printers and software this is enough and now you can export it to .stl format and get 3D printed. However, when sharing files on Cults or other sites, it's important to make sure your files are in the best possible condition so that anyone can 3D print them, no matter what printer or software they use. And it only takes a few clicks to do so.

9. Make it solid

Now that our objects are merged into one file, we can use Edit>Make Solid to combine them properly and control the resolution of the mesh. The default settings may shock you when previewing: many hard edges will become soft and low resolution. By increasing the Solid Body Accuracy and Mesh Density sliders, you can increase the resolution. Just click the Refresh button to update the preview model. When you are happy with the detail, you can accept the model - just keep in mind that the higher the resolution, the larger the resulting stl file will be! In the Object Browser, you will also notice that the original model (before using Make Solid) is still available, just hidden from view so that you can always return to it if you want to change the details by clicking on the eye symbol.

10. Export

Finally, you are ready to use the "Export" function in the left menu. Make sure the file type is binary STL format and not ASCII STL format, which usually results in a large increase in file size.

Once you've completed these 10 steps, you'll be able to confidently customize a design you've downloaded from the Cults website or elsewhere. There are many other tools available in Meshmixer or the other programs mentioned above for working with .stl files, but that can wait until another day. If you'd like to learn more, there's an excellent library of Autodesk Meshmixer 101 video tutorials to help you set it up like a pro in no time!

via Pinshape

This page has been translated using machine translation. Suggest the best translation

Editing STL file

3D modeling

Often when downloading this or that model, we are faced with a situation that something does not suit it, or we want to change it. But when using standard tools to try to open the STL format in a CAD program, we get only its graphical shell, which cannot be edited, except to admire it. But in fact, everything is quite simple. Perhaps many people know about this, but nevertheless, I'm sure this information will be useful to someone ...

And so, what needs to be done to open the STL and edit it, oh yes, we will talk about SolidWorks further ... I have been working with it for a long time, but every time I find new opportunities for myself from version to version, and so let's get started ...

Step one: select the STL file and explicitly specify the format.

Step two: press the 'Options' button

By default, the program has the option to import this format as a graphic body, and if you do not change this option, the program will always open, roughly speaking, an empty picture.

Step three: We explicitly specify how we want to open this file, that is, as a rigid body. And also select the units of millimeters (if you are sure that the model was not created in a country where people think in inches)...

Fourth step: Click on the 'Open' button.

Further, it depends on your imagination what to do with this file. To begin with, you can try to recognize it with the FeatureWorks function, for this, right-click on the imported object in the object tree, and this function will be found there.

But it often happens that this function, after working, will not be able to recognize the part for some reason and recreate the structural tree of objects in SW format. But even here you should not be upset, at least the part can be cut, dissected, drilled, added / built up bosses on it, etc. ... Well, you know better what you are going to do with it.

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