combine parts into one part??

[Eureka]

HI,

i have to make some .stl files for materialising.

The problem is I want to combine different parts as one part.

I think it's not possible to make an .stl from an assembly?!

So is there any possibility to combine some parts into one part so i can save it as an .stl file??

Many thanks to answer my problem.

[gplacinta]

I don't know if Inventor can do that alone, but in my experience, a separate translating program is very useful. There are a lot of them out there, but the one that I have been using a lot is called Transmagic (http://www.transmagic.com). If you go to their website, I am pretty sure you can download a trial version, and can use that to translate your files into .stl with no problem. Its a pretty cool program because it also lets you choose how you want to translate [such as grouping certain parts together as one part, or a whole assembly together as a large part]. The only thing is that it doesn't recognize inventor .ipt/.iam's so you have to save them as something else first [i usually do .sat because its quicker to open than .stp]

Hope this helps,

George

[PeterCharles]

http://www.mcadforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5980

[gplacinta]

haha sweet, that link made more sense. i didn't even think to try to save a file as an .stl from a derived part.