import(“file.stl”, convexity=10);

Well, of course, as so often happens, producing the smallest piece of code that illustrates the bug causes the bug to disappear. My apologies. It’s entirely likely that I mistyped a filename, or an extension, but all trace of what I *actually* did are gone. My original point was: the error message didn’t help. It might have been any one of: a) file does not exist b) file is not an .stl file c) file is not properly formated .stl d) file is too big Ah…here’s a history: a) I tried import using an old system b) it failed with the cryptic error message c) I found “text” in the manual d) I tried that - it failed because I had not updated e) I updated F) The Princeton Band g) text worked So…I was happy. Then I complained. My bad. Whatever the problem was, it is now gone. Perhaps it was a mismatch in syntax or semantics between the old system and the new. All appears well, now - and there is little point trying to recreate the problem on an obsolete version. But now…to get to my main point: HOW BIG an stl file should I expect to be able to import into the latest stable version of OpenSCAD? (assume a reasonably loaded Mac Pro, or (if it matters) a MacBook Pro) Can I change that? (that is, are there incantations which can allocate more memory) - presumably both for the .stl file AND the internal data structure that gets built from it. When will I choke cgal? Now that the system is so much improved, I will want to go back to previous failed attempts to read in huge STL files and do things like splitting them into 3D tiles. My application is that I run a 3D Print Lab in a Computer Science department. I can WRITE a Java program to do this (I wrote a reasonably competent STL package many years ago, and, if necessary, I could write a “streaming STL” program to do it “on the fly” using minimal memory), and there are many systems that CLAIM to be able to do this - but the only ones I have found to work (other than my own) are commercial packages that I can’t afford. Of course, it’s trivial in OpenSCAD - so that’s my preferred choice. My question is: how far can I push this. I have volume datasets that contain millions and millions of triangles (convexity = 10000?). Again - I *can* do it in Java (in practice, this is a good exercise for students, but they rarely deliver an “industrial strength” solution) - but I prefer to do it in OpenSCAD. The question is: is it feasible? Ok - I’ll go off and see if I can read my biggest .stl file into the new, improved OpenSCAD. Wish me luck! -- Kenneth Sloan KennethRSloan@gmail.com <mailto:KennethRSloan@gmail.com> Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. > On Aug 18, 2015, at 12:35 , Kenneth Sloan <kennethrsloan@gmail.com> wrote: > > Yes - just : > > import(“file.stl”, convexity=10); > > fails > > I’ll try to create a concrete example, and perhaps experiment to nail down whether or not it’s a size issue. > > Since file size is an issue (potentially) - please send (privately) an e-mail address to receive instructions on fetching the files. > > But…I’m on deadline for the next few days and don’t have a lot of time to spend working on this - sorry. > > I’ll try - > -- > Kenneth Sloan > KennethRSloan@gmail.com > Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. > > > > >> On Aug 18, 2015, at 12:11 , Torsten Paul <Torsten.Paul@gmx.de> wrote: >> >> On 08/18/2015 06:55 PM, Kenneth Sloan wrote: >>> a) how do I find our *why* an .stl file fails to open, and >>> >> Just opening the file (only import statement, nothing else) already >> fails? >> >>> b) if it is a memory issue, how do I maximize the amount of >>> memory available to OpenSCAD to use when opening .stl files? >>> >> Without looking at the details, the only suggestion would be to >> check if it's a 64 bit OpenSCAD running on a 64 bit System. >> >> Can you share some specific example cases with all the files? >> >> ciao, >> Torsten. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OpenSCAD mailing list >> Discuss@lists.openscad.org >> http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org >