Work with surfaces, not topolgy

I need your help. I have imported a model which is a topolgy. However, I only need the individual surfaces to work with. Is there any way to unlock the body to use the faces? Thanks, Dana

Hi and welcome to the community!

It depends on the file you implement. If it’s a png, then you’ll need to vectorize the topological map yourself. You could also use a vectorisation program such as Adobe Illustrator and use the “vectorize function”, however, the results are often sub-optimal. But depending on the resolution of your map and the different colours you can get quite good results which works as a base. You would then save it as a .SVG file and export it to Shapr3D and finally amend the small errors. If you are handy with machine learning you could compute gradient estimations(using a deep RL setup) to reproduce a vectorised version of the map. I find this method very good for certain problems, although the computations can take quite some time.

If you have a .SVG file of the topological map, then you should be able to import it to Shapr3D directly.

Finally, let me know if you want some pointers for the ML solution

Hope that helps!

Thank you for your answer. I have imported a step file and would like to continue working with it. Since the part has a 3mm wall thickness and I only need the outer surfaces, I have to separate the body or copy the individual surfaces. But unfortunately this does not work either.

Alright, that’s strange! All step files I’ve worked with has “acted” just like any other body in Shapr3D. Perhaps the staff can help you out!

Hi
Shapr3D works only on solid bodies, not on surfaces.
So basically you can’t have 0mm width walls, and short answer is no, you can’t unlock the body to use the face.

By curiosity, why do you need only the surface?

If you construct a plane above the topology, can you select the various surfaces and project it to the plane? If so, you can now work with it by extruding the contours to suit at varying depths of your choice.

In my job, I receive finished designs … for example, of vehicle cladding. I then have to create a model or tool for the GFK production. In principle, this is a negative mold. I am only interested in the good side of the component.
Is this explained in an understandable way? In the office I work with Tebis. I thought for on the road and at home I could use Shapr. So Shapr will remain only a hobby.