How to reduce an STL model to something more manageable?

[mmasarik]

Hello, I have an STL file that was created from a 3D CT scanner. I am now in the process of creating a parametric model from it but I am running into a bit of a problem. The STL is 500MB and contains 9,705,964 facets which is making my CREO run real slow and it typically crashes when saving. Does anyone know how I might reduce the resolution of the model or speed up the load times? Thanks!

This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.

[TomD.inPDX · Accepted solution]

There are a number of 3rd party apps that can do this.

You might start with MeshMixer and also try Meshlab.

no easy way but this should get you going.

What I have not tried is re-exporting from Creo using the optional mesh settings.

I suspect it will not reduce polygon count once faceted.

[mmasarik]

I found Meshlab last night and it worked great! It was able to reduce my model to 10% of the original size without losing to much resolution. Creo handles the new model without any lag at all.