Mesh To Solid for Rhino is a plug-in for Rhino 2.0 and 3.0. This plug-in gives Rhino to ability to convert a mesh into a solid.

A mesh is a useful entity when it comes to defining geometry of an object. However, certain Rhino commands such as boolean operations, offset, extrusion, etc, cannot be performed on meshes. Moreover, Rhino does not export meshes to IGES, STEP, ACIS, ParaSolid, VDA and similar file formats, thereby rendering the mesh model useless for further solid modeling in another CAD system. Rhino imports STL, OBJ and other similar files as meshes only. If you need to modify these imported objects you need to convert them into solids.

Rhino has an internal "MeshToNurb" command. This command converts each and every face of the mesh into a Nurbs surface and joins them together. This makes the final solid object complicated and difficult to work with.

Mesh To Solid for Rhino, on the other hand, studies the mesh object and determines the features that define the geometry of the model. It then creates a single trimmed Nurbs surface for a group of mesh faces that collectively define a feature. Finally it joins all the trimmed Nurbs surfaces to form the final solid. The resulting solid contains a far lesser number of faces and is much easier to work with.

Mesh To Solid for Rhino is very easy to use. It adds a new command to Rhino called "MeshToSolid". Simply type "MeshToSolid" at the command prompt and select the mesh you wish to convert into a solid.

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