Importing STLs doesn't appear to work

[darkkmage]

This is a great project, I've always wanted a simple, offline, FOSS alternative to things like Tinkercad, so glad you're working on this.

I am just getting started with trying to use this and I'm trying to import STL files so I can work on them in CaDoodle. Each time I do the file just turns into a simple cube instead of the real object. I've tried dragging and dropping or using the Import dialogue. I've tried several different STLs in case it was just the one I selected. No luck.

Since I'm new to this maybe there's something I'm missing but I can't figure it out at this point.

[darkkmage]

I've kept testing more STLs. Very simple STLs (e.g. a cylinder) seem to work. Even mildly complex STLs that work in Tinkercad result in the cube issue. I'm guessing there's a limit on the complexity this program can handle for models and that is what is going on. Other programs will throw an error of some kind when they encounter this. If that is truly what is going on it would be helpful to have an error message with that. This does sadden me a bit as this means this tool will only be useful for more simple shapes than I was hoping for, though it's still a great project even so.

[madhephaestus]

CaDoodle is limited to manifold STL's, the pink cube shows up when the mesh being loaded fails the manifold check. Did the ADMesh repair tool come up? Can you upload the failing STL here so i can look at it?

Manifold vs non-manifold is a really technical distinction, but it comes down to how the STL was made in the first place being... well... wrong. The most powerful tools for repair are there, is the Blender button availible in CaDoodle in the context menu of the pink square? If you click it and install the blender plugin, do you see the model in blender?