# Why can’t I import files?

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/why-can-t-i-import-files/2640>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [July 19, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/why-can-t-i-import-files/2640 "2018-07-19T20:43:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shock9616](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/shock9616/32/2053_2.png) [@Shock9616](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Shock9616)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/why-can-t-i-import-files/2640/1 "2018-07-19T20:43:16Z")

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Hi,  
I’m trying to import a design of a helmet from the Metroid video games into Shapr3D but every time I import it, I just get a blank workspace. I have read [this entire discussion] but so far, nothing has helped. I would have uploaded a video that shows the problem but since I am still a new user, I can’t do that yet. Can somebody please help?

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**Author:** ![Zoli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/zoli/32/592_2.png) [@Zoli](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Zoli)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/why-can-t-i-import-files/2640/2 "2018-07-19T20:51:10Z")

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Sure. Can you send a link to the file you can not import or if you don’t feel to share it publicly send it to [zoli@shapr3d.com](mailto:zoli@shapr3d.com) and I’ll take a look at it tommorrow at the office. Thanks

- zoli

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**Author:** ![Shock9616](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/shock9616/32/2053_2.png) [@Shock9616](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Shock9616)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 9:46pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/why-can-t-i-import-files/2640/3 "2018-07-19T21:46:03Z")

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Ok. Here’s the link:  
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T7CE8tNPNhHWqHw2DpAobRq5a3JkGjHJ/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T7CE8tNPNhHWqHw2DpAobRq5a3JkGjHJ/view?usp=sharing)

I looked into it a bit more and I think that I might have actually figured it out. I think that the file is empty. I’m not sure why though. It might have been a problem with conversion because the file was originally an stl file. If you want to see the stl file just let me know. I have that too.

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**Author:** ![Zoli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/zoli/32/592_2.png) [@Zoli](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Zoli)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2018, 10:53am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/why-can-t-i-import-files/2640/4 "2018-07-20T10:53:14Z")

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Ok, so this STEP file is empty, the conversion was wrong. I look it up on google and I guess I’ve found the original STL file you were trying to convert. I’ve successfully converted it to STEP. It became a huge 300+MB file, but I was unable to open it in shapr. Usually mesh data is not a good fit for Shaper. The engine under the hood works completely different.

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**Author:** ![Shock9616](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/shock9616/32/2053_2.png) [@Shock9616](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Shock9616)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/why-can-t-i-import-files/2640/5 "2018-07-20T16:09:37Z")

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Ok. Thanks anyways.