[2015] ConvertExcelToMesh3D
Why did i make my own drawing 3D Software:
- I tried SweetHome3D. Very nice/easy to start quickly drawing your own flat. But i wanted to manage more myselft each details.
- I tried Google Sketchup. It provides good ideas and interessing tools. But i find it is crazy to manage different layers sharing the same points. I got bugs when my scene 3D becomes complex.
- I like using Excel (easy to organize/duplicate/compute each positions).
- I wanted to be able to export my final mesh 3D in any file format.
How to compute surface points:
- Step 1: Create an Excel file with 4 columns: X, Y, Zmin, Zmax.
- Step 2: Define closed line 2D along each top/bottom surface borders.
- Step 3: For each row, set X,Y values to define a closed line 2D. Make sure points are sorted in the clock direction, to allow closing shapes with top and bottom caps.
- Step 4: To define different lines 2D, add empty row.
- Step 5: Set Zmin and Zmax values to join top/bottom surfaces.
- Step 6: Save as .csv.
- Step 7: Drag-and-drop your file.csv onto ConvertExcelToMesh3D.exe to compute meshes 3D (in different file 3d formats: .stl, .ply, .vtp, .vtk, and oriented images: .jpg, .png).
How to group or color surface parts:
- Step 1: Add in the Excel file the columns: item, Red, Green, Blue.
- Step 2: For each row, set any integer values for items (to be used like scalar/array to threshold the final mesh).
- Step 3: For each row, set any 0<=integer<=255 values for Red/Green/Blue.
How to watch final meshes:
- Download my free ShowMeshes_Lite32b.exe.
- Drag-and-drop your 3d mesh files directly on ShowMeshes.exe.
- Left/middle/right click on the 3d viewer to move the camera.
- Use free Software Paraview (available on http://www.paraview.org/download/).
- Go into Paraview menu/File/Open: to load.
- Go into Paraview menu/Filters/Alphabetical/Threshold: to choose only few items to show.
- Go into Paraview Display tab + uncheck Map Scalars: to display real colors.
