Reducing Mesh

Rhino
1

I am trying to send an stl file out for printing; I’m told my file is too large. I googled solutions and was directed to reduce mesh.

Rhino is asking how many polygons do I want to reduce to- I have no idea. The window says I have 1,087,776 polygons currently.

Advice appreciated. TIA. Lisa

2

1 million polys really isn’t a lot….

3

Too large for the printer’s build volume?

4

I am trying to send it to a local makerspace. It says- Files should be in STL format (.stl). The maximum allowable file size is 16 MB . My file says it’s 51.9 MB. This is a component of a larger piece and is only about 3” x 2”.

5

Did you save the STL as text or binary? That seems awfully big.

6

Screenshot (4939)
Screenshot (4939)562×671 69.9 KB
this is the screen I get and I click OK

7

What print technology is this? SLA or FDM?

8

if your object is an subd the subdivision level below is the important parameter.

0.0001 inch = 0.00254 mm

what 3d-process ?
my guess - the precision is somewhere between the 0.1 to 0.01mm
so maybe set the edge-Distance to some rougher value ? 0.0005 in or even 0.001 ?

wikipedia shows a simple binary stl size.

UINT8[80]    – Header                 - 80 bytes
UINT32       – Number of triangles    - 04 bytes
foreach triangle                      - 50 bytes
    REAL32[3] – Normal vector         - 12 bytes
    REAL32[3] – Vertex 1              - 12 bytes
    REAL32[3] – Vertex 2              - 12 bytes
    REAL32[3] – Vertex 3              - 12 bytes
    UINT16    – Attribute byte count  - 02 bytes
end

if i calculated correct you need to end up somewhere close to 320 000 maximum number of faces / polygons / triangles.

16mb is not a very generous file size ;-(

9

I really appreciate all the input- I changed “maximum edge to surface distance” from 0.0001 to 0.001 and my file was accepted.

My object is NURBS and I was printing to a Bambu printer using FDM technology.

I usually send my files out and print using SLS but I was hoping to get a quick turnaround visual model before I order multiples. I have never had to reduce mesh before.

Thanks Again- Lisa