Getting gibberish from a stl

[Xxray]

Got to be something obviously wrong here, I have never had problems importing stl's.

Alls I am getting out of the model is just random chunky blocks that bear little to no relation to the model - On this attempt I at least can make out part of a head and shoulder, more than I was getting before. This is a paid model from a well known site so I doubt if it is flawed/corrupted.
Can anyone spot from the settings what I am doing wrong ?

One thing about stl I never really understood, they always have a ridiculous Z like 388" or something, and I always scale it down to something more reasonable a few inches, then adjust it once its in the work area, maybe thats got something to do with it.

[martin54]

Have you tried a different orientation? Guessing you have a 7" z because you are looking down on it from the top. not imported a lot of STL's myself but have had to alter the orientation on a couple

[Adrian]

There are loads of undercuts on that model so from that orientation you're not going to get anything workable. You need to orient it so the girl is lying on her back and put the plane in the middle of her body.

[garylmast]

If your job is setup in inches and your model is in millimeters, the model will come in to what you're experiencing. Undo the import then go to job setup and change to millimeters, then try importing the model.

Gary

[Savannahdan]

Yep, you need to change the orientation to front or back. The back orientation will most likely give you a frontal view of the model laying on her back. You'll also have to change your model size after that.

[Xxray]

There are loads of undercuts on that model so from that orientation you're not going to get anything workable. You need to orient it so the girl is lying on her back and put the plane in the middle of her body.

Usually not a bad idea to lay a girl on her back, in this case though her backside is the model, the front is just a block [not a 2 sided model]. I do know what you mean though makes sense, hopefully it works I am going to try it later and report back with results.

edit: Yep that was it, hard to see how I didn't figure that out, live and learn !

[Xxray]

All good with the file. Wood here is a little distracting, but then again so is she !

Still a little wet from the clearcoat, I'll thrown one more coat on after a light sanding and call it good.
I lucked out on the grain pattern I like the placement, textured background looks nice and even the knot in lower right looks cool. Doing 3D models with potential odd grain patterns is in the lap of the gods, no way to predict how things will turn out.

[scottp55]

Actually LIKE the almost abstract distraction!!
Liking the fact that it's not a normal "In your Face" Vanilla piece
Liking the Almost heart shape grain around the knot, And the fact you cut so close to the 2(?) chunks out of the frame!

Wood species doesn't immediately come to uncaffeinated mind
NICE JOB!!
Congrats Doug!
scott

[Xxray]

Actually LIKE the almost abstract distraction!!
Liking the fact that it's not a normal "In your Face" Vanilla piece
Liking the Almost heart shape grain around the knot, And the fact you cut so close to the 2(?) chunks out of the frame!

Wood species doesn't immediately come to uncaffeinated mind
NICE JOB!!
Congrats Doug!
scott

So its not only me, I was going to mention that heart shape by the knot but I thought folks might think I skipped my meds but sho nuff, there it is.

Plank is just short of 5.5" wide, the cut is 5" so not much margin for error. Species is Kentucky cedar, the guy I brought the planks from hauls them [and other species] up to MI to mill then sell. He says the cedar grows by a creek that has some kind of mineral content [or moonshine content maybe], and it leeches into the wood hence the unique grain patterns.

[martin54]

Still a little wet from the clearcoat, I'll thrown one more coat on after a light sanding and call it good.
I lucked out on the grain pattern I like the placement, textured background looks nice and even the knot in lower right looks cool. Doing 3D models with potential odd grain patterns is in the lap of the gods, no way to predict how things will turn out.

Looks good to me, I am not as brave as you, not sure the gods smile down on me When I do any 3D work I tend to look for fairly plain uninteresting wood because that way I know there isn't going to be any conflict between the wood grain & the 3D model. I tend to save the figured wood for projects that don't involve 3D. As you say you never know how a piece will turn out before carving if you start with a nice grain pattern. Probably will never produce anything as stunning as some of your work but at least I am not producing more firewood

[Xxray]

Still a little wet from the clearcoat, I'll thrown one more coat on after a light sanding and call it good.
I lucked out on the grain pattern I like the placement, textured background looks nice and even the knot in lower right looks cool. Doing 3D models with potential odd grain patterns is in the lap of the gods, no way to predict how things will turn out.

Looks good to me, I am not as brave as you, not sure the gods smile down on me When I do any 3D work I tend to look for fairly plain uninteresting wood because that way I know there isn't going to be any conflict between the wood grain & the 3D model. I tend to save the figured wood for projects that don't involve 3D. As you say you never know how a piece will turn out before carving if you start with a nice grain pattern. Probably will never produce anything as stunning as some of your work but at least I am not producing more firewood

This wood is not too bad grain wise, has more of a swirled pattern. I learned a long time ago with woods like bocote that they are not suitable for 3D models, the model is all but camouflaged by the over the top grain, this cedar is no where near that and I could tell that at a glance before I bought it. You can get a ballpark idea of where you stand by scrutinizing the edges, I knew I'd end up with something interesting so I gave it a go. Actually somewhat of a test, my router died last week and I brought it back from the dead after much ado, so now I want to do a couple test pieces that are around the 2 hour mark to make sure its up to snuff, so far so good.

[scottp55]

Kentucky Cedar with mineral staining.....I don't feel so bad now
Again Doug...Nice Job!
scott