CAD faces and edges from a STEP file
A STEP file knows its real faces and real edges. MeshOptimiser keeps them, so the outlines are the ones the designer drew.
A mesh is made of triangles. The CAD file it came from is made of faces, each one a clean surface such as a plane, a cylinder or a sphere, and of edges, the lines where those faces meet. When the app converts a STEP file, it now keeps that information next to the mesh.
Outlines that are really there
The lines drawn on a model used to be guessed from the angle between triangles. For a STEP file they are now the file’s own edges. Curved parts show smooth, true outlines, and a flat plate with a lot of triangles does not grow lines where there are none.
The CAD edges pill
When a scene has this information, a CAD edges pill appears in the row of pills in the view. Click it to open the CAD faces and edges panel. It tells you the file, how many solids, CAD faces and CAD edges it holds.
- Face info on hover
- Off by default. Point at a face and a tip names it: plane, cylinder, cone, sphere, torus, a free-form surface and so on, with its radius or angle, its area and how many triangles it has. The face is tinted blue while you point at it.
- Tangent edges
- On by default. These are the edges where two faces run smoothly into each other, such as the borders of a fillet. Switch them off to see only the edges that are really sharp.
Surface parts
Some STEP files carry parts that are only surfaces, with no solid inside: sheet covers, shields, trim. They used to be left out. Surface parts in the import window is on by default and brings them in as parts of their own. Switch it off to keep only the solids.