# How to Model From a Mesh File

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645>\
**Category:** Share your creations\
**Created:** [September 17, 2026, 1:59am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645 "2026-09-17T01:59:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Yepher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/yepher/32/8902_2.png) [@Yepher](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Yepher)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2026, 1:59am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645/1 "2026-09-17T01:59:17Z")

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Often, I get mesh files like 3MF, STL, etc and I want to use them in a tool like Shapr3D. I thought I’d show you how to create a drawing that Shapr3D can use directly. We can produce a series of to-scale 2D drawings that I generate from the 3D file. For a while, I tried to talk to the Shapr team about building this functionality directly into the app, but it never really went anywhere.

No tokens, no AI needed.

I use these two tools:  
Slicer: [3D Slicer · Yepher](https://yepher.com/tools/mesh-slicer)  
Drawing Sheet: [Drawing Sheet · Yepher](https://yepher.com/tools/drawing)

There are a few [threads](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/shapr3d-saves-files-as-stl-but-cannot-open-stl-files/2909/7) in the forum from several years ago where I talked about these tools, but I thought it might be time to share them, so I made them public on my site. Your models stay local. You work on them in your browser, but they never actually leave your computer. They get stored in your browser storage, so if you reload or come back later, they will still be there.

Mesh files aren’t super precise, though they’re often good enough for many 3D printing cases. So don’t count on them ot be micrometer-accurate.

This may also be useful if you just want to whip up some shop drawings from a mesh file.

For the curious, here is a video demonstration of them in action:

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/d/4/d489d04c70af4849eec62ab568113699edf99f1e.jpeg "3D Mesh to CAD v2") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3BMYD_1pI8)

**Example Output File**  
[sample\_gear\_3mf.pdf](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/uploads/short-url/tw4XK1nGPjGKo2dlDqaK9TehBnp.pdf) (36.9 KB)

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**Author:** ![scott2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@scott2](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/scott2)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645/2 "2026-09-20T17:18:49Z")

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This is super cool! I used it this morning to rebuild a model that didn’t quite work for me. I printed out this chisel holder and my two smallest chisels didn’t fit. My calipers are in storage from moving so I used your drawing tool to get the measurements and model a new one. Thanks!

 ![IMG_0650](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/d/4/d4b6229fd40f8fcba1d46adf59e31e32093c5746.jpeg)

 ![IMG_0651](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/9/1/912368086d80d19a93059c97dfc6889f6b49f5b7.jpeg)

It’s messy but it did the job!

 ![dlata](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/a/8/a89c4ddc77d4d18f88207f920b5ddb7c5fb1e26f.png)

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**Author:** ![Yepher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/yepher/32/8902_2.png) [@Yepher](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Yepher)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 8:11pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645/3 "2026-09-20T20:11:22Z")

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Wow, glad you found it useful.

A recent feature I added is if you right-click on a view on the drawing, you can hide/unhide hidden lines. Sometimes that is handy.

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**Author:** ![Yepher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/yepher/32/8902_2.png) [@Yepher](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Yepher)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 2:54am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645/4 "2026-09-25T02:54:06Z")

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I added a a way to download the mesh as a STEP file:

> **[3D Slicer · Yepher](https://yepher.com/tools/mesh-slicer)**
>
> Drop an STL, 3MF, OBJ, PLY, glTF or FBX model, slice it into cross-sections at any layer height along any axis, or project it into a hidden-line drawing. Multi-part 3MF files keep their colours and can be sliced part by part. Export layers or the...

 ![download_step](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/9/9/995c0cc58ce49696328488e478b68dbb6eca071b.png)

Here is an example output. Your milage may very.

[sample-gear.step](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/uploads/short-url/4La4TOUzIO60CffUz5YsZoe51En.step) (472.1 KB)

Here it is imported to Shapr3D

 ![shapr3](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/b/a/ba9319c66918b89337b8e5aa7d88ea00578d12ca.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![3DFG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/3dfg/32/36618_2.png) [@3DFG](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/3DFG)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 8:14am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645/5 "2026-09-25T08:14:46Z")

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Thanks for sharing this awesome piece of work @Yepher !

Really useful set of tools, along with your image vectorizer!

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**Author:** ![Yepher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/yepher/32/8902_2.png) [@Yepher](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Yepher)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645/6 "2026-09-25T12:28:11Z")

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Glad you like the image vectorizer. That is a tool that I really need to work on more.

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**Author:** ![Yepher](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/yepher/32/8902_2.png) [@Yepher](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Yepher)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/how-to-model-from-a-mesh-file/41645/7 "2026-09-26T21:36:29Z")

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This was a fun test. It starts as a mesh, then imports into Shapr3D as an editable file.

![2026-09-26 16.06.48](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/7/7/77a404030e9ba1bcb4eceec05c4015aa35e92227.gif)

Original File:  
[25042\_Perseverance.glb.zip](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/uploads/short-url/oiWjVmoTiIDowhkaxvl5Pein4GY.zip) (5.6 MB)

You can try it here [3D Slicer · Yepher](https://yepher.com/tools/mesh-slicer) Just import the output STEP file into Shapr3D. It is not perfect, but it is fair.