Continuous Mesh from Trimmed CAD surfaces

[PepperRules34]

Hello to all magicians ! 

So recently I've been trying to tackle a topic I never realized was going to be so painful : generate proper meshes from CAD files. The goal is to create a tool to generate clean, lowPoly meshes from CAD assets.

And by CAD I mean using directly the nurbs surfaces/curves generated by the CAD software; often surfaces that are not joined really, they are just an ensemble of trimmed surfaces. If I just use a single Convert node, each surface will have its own mesh density, and what I really need is a continuous mesh allover.

I've been reading quite a bit lately in ODforce forums as well as SideFX and I believe that this is still a mystery to most of us. From the information I've gathered, everything adds up to remodelling the asset using Nurbs tools... Creating profile curves, skinning, stitching, etc... but if any one has a better trick for this issue, I'm more that happy to hear ideas !!

Thanks a lot  

 

[Librarian]

@PepperRules34 I have only Method that works Last  12 years ---any input-> GeoMagic-Fast like Speedy Gonzalesss , or Materialise SOFTWARE /for 3d print/,than when i have One Clean Mesh Surface(those curves and space handling (that ,You can know Build in Houdini (you have tools if you will go for each rabbit hole) pow,object .mostly export  Step or STL depending, i think you can find already some tools that if you combine those tools :  ->  Time   :  make your own Tool for that Import /clean/CAD  ...
Post some example in CAD File...If

 

[PepperRules34]

@Librarian thank you so so much !!! I've seen your posts from other threads and frankly your contributions to the community on these subjects are incredible !

I will give those softwares a try  in the meantime, I will upload the scene with some of the ideas that I had along the way, as well as the basic CAD too. 

thanks again !! 

sampleCADreconstruction_od_001.hip

Edited August 1, 2022 by PepperRules34

[Librarian]

@PepperRules34 Thanx

I think that you have with those ex that you have provided ,everything ready to do effects(ANY), on that model. If ?? that its you primary Goal .
Post if you can Original File ..What Software you use for modeling? Or that  its just some model from Web .

 

CadforEffec.hiplc

[PepperRules34]

Hey @Librarian ! Wow thanks again for the help  

 

Well it's true that with the examples you gave me, and with mine, almost any cool FX can be done haha

The thing here is that my primary goal was notreally doing any FX on the object. It was to get a clean, continuous, optimised, triangulated mesh from the CAD object directly by importing it and handling it in Houdini. (eventually the main goal is to create a library of lowPoly assets, having CAD objects as input !)

But after speaking with SideFX directly, well, it turns out that Houdini is simply uncapable (for the moment at least !) of meshing the collection of trimmed Nurbs Surfaces as a whole; instead it just meshes the surfaces separately pased on parametric information. Seems that they were working on this many years ago but it was abandoned along the way...

 

Oh well ! No problem hehe I will just follow your advice of creating a triangulated mesh of the CAD object by using another software. Will try GeoMagic as you said ! If you have any other software in mind I will be more than pleased  

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by PepperRules34