600mb up to 1,4Gb STL files and Einscan Pro+, 3d Scanner

I have been using Rhino since 2005 starting with 3, then 4, and now 5. I manufacture aircraft propellers (since 1983) from 10hp up to 480hp. Rhino has and will always be my designing choice…
Having said that, … I have purchased an EINSCAN PRO +, 3D scanner from Shining3d, to scan huge propellers to reproduce them on a cnc router from Shopsabre in Minneapolis…
Big problem… the STL files that are generated vary from NEVER below 350mb up to and including 1.2Gb each. I can see 1,8Gb stl files generated in 3 to 6 months
Opening in Rhino (if it happens ) results in a wait of 30 to 40 minutes. Manipulating these files takes 30 minutes per command using mesh tools.
due to the extreme accuracy needed , 0,2mm one can not reduce the mesh at all. No route there…So, 90% of the time Rhino freezes solid.
The computer specs are CPU 3820 @3,6Ghz overclocked to 4.5Ghz, 24 Gb Kingston memory 1600 , GPU is a MSI 1060 with all the bells and whistles, overclocked by 30%. The m/board is a ASUS P9X79PRO. The program is running from a SSD Samsung 512Gb. Operating system is Windows 10 64bit.
I have ordered a INTEL 7900 2066 CPU with 32Gb Corsair memory, and a Gigabyte m/board to fit all the hardware onto as a last resort.
Questions:

  1. Will this speed up Rhino’s reaction times between mesh commands?
  2. If not, what will?
  3. If all of the above are the incorrect questions, what should I be asking then?

Positive, in detail as far as possible, suggestions, will be greatly appreciated.

If the model consists of different parts, can you split the parts into different files and work with parts (smaller files) individually? (or only with fewer related parts at the time?)

// Rolf

I suspect that these scans could be decimated. I understand you don’t believe that is possible due to the accuracy required.

In my experience, Geomagic’s decimation is superior. It is possible to evaluate the deviation from the original scan to the decimated version to be sure the accuracy you require is maintained. Control X is their inspection application, and it may prove useful in others ways. Download a trial version and try it for yourself, or contact a reseller.

Yes, it is expensive, but it sounds like you could justify it.

Some basic things to check when working on large meshes:

  1. Join all meshes into ‘one’ mesh, even though they may be disjointed.
  2. Turn off ‘Mesh Wires’ in the Display Tab or Viewport settings.
  3. Ensure the mesh is located near world origin coordinates.

If you have tried those and nothing else helps, Rhino 6 has a faster display pipeline.

Gentlemen,
I thank you very much. I shall explore all the suggestions you have made and maybe ask more questions in the end. I have downloaded and will install Rhino 6 today and then , in the next week or two exercise my Rhino 6 muscles, before coming back here to report back.
Some of the scans are aircraft exterior components i.e. engine cowl top and bottom (Cessna type aircraft) windscreen and frame and sliding exterior windshield frame (Piper Cherokee type aircraft). Propellers are up to 9,6 m in diameter with a blade width of up to 1m tapering down to 100mm at the tip. I am sorry to say that the components can not be split into different parts as these are fixed to the aircraft.
Kind regards to all and thank you once again,
Pieter de Necker

SOP for CNC cutting of these shapes is to rebuild the mesh with NURBS and use that clean, smaller file for CAM. Is that your workflow or are you CAMing directly from the mesh?

I don’t understand why the mesh has to be so dense and large if you are not trying to replicate every tiny noisy bump on the mesh surfaces. Is there some other detail about these parts that requires them to have such high mesh density?

Decimating to an 8 or 10 million poly mesh should be more than sufficient to faithfully reverse engineer using standard curves and surfaces in Rhino.

1.2GB STL files will bring any fast rig and software to its knees. We have DesignX and it will just sit there processing for long spans on files this size.

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Hi Carvecream, I wish I could turn it into a NURBS… however I have been using Rhino 5 64 bit and that just freezes. So I pull this monstrous file into Rhino and it changes the stl to a 3ds file. Then rhinocam understands cause they talk to each other (the cad and the cam) fluently… no hiccups.
I shall decimate the file down to 10mil as you suggested and look at the effects, ok? Sounds reasonable.
I have come across, what seems to me, to be a great little program that specialises in meshes, called VRmesh for $700. However I took the 30day free download and have worked with it now for about 3 hours finding my way about the tens of commands/tools/ orders/ - lol at age 65 I seem to stumble more than I used to when I was a youngster. The various tools available is impressive compared to Rhino 5 tools for meshes. So maybe…
But thank you, and the other gentlemen that have given me some direction in a very positive manner. It is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards to all,
Pieter de Necker

Pieter - VRMesh is $7,000 not $700.