Careful with those online CAD file converters guys

I used a free STL to DXF converter last week and it shifted all my hole center points by 0.015 inches. Caught it on a test cut in some 1/8 plate but if I had run production on it, that would have been a 300 piece scrap pile. Found the error when I double checked the coordinates against the original PDF. Check your conversion outputs before you burn material folks.

2 comments

2 Comments

riverm484d ago

Yeah that "shifted all my hole center points" thing is exactly why I never trust free converters for anything with tolerances tighter than 1/16. I had a similar issue last year where a converter rounded all my dimensions to the nearest 1/8 inch. Caught it when I noticed the holes looked off in the preview. Now I always do a test with a simple known shape like a 1 inch square just to see if the converter keeps the size right. Run that test file through and measure it before you even think about sending real parts. Saves a ton of headaches and wasted material.

averywright4d ago

Honestly, I get why you do that test method but I see it a bit different. Sometimes free converters mess up but they're not all bad, and doing a 1 inch square test can miss the real problems like how the converter handles arcs or complex curves. Ngl, I've had more issues with the paid stuff being overhyped or their support being useless when something breaks. Tbh, learning to manually check your g-code or dxf with a basic text viewer catches way more garbage than any test shape will.