Expert: Alan Zube - 8/5/2009

Question
i have image vision system, so by use that an component is scanned and stored as image, i want to reproduce the component by using a cad model , is there any possibility to convert the image to a cad model

Answer
I don't think you can convert STL to a CAD model file. STL format is supposed to be a big blob of triangles. I've tried Solidworks 2007 for importing and while it will bring in the STL file, I can't do a thing with it. Saving it results in an empty file. I have heard of others who have had success with Solidworks. Maybe 2009 would work.

I suggested seeing if the 3D scanner software allows direct conversion into a 3D CAD format and not into STL, but perhaps it's set up for going from scan into prototypes or something.