Processing a Solidworks CAD file in 3-D Volumetric Image Processing toolbox

Hi All,

I would like to process a Solidworks CAD file in 3-D Volumetric Image Processing toolbox (https://uk.mathworks.com/help/images/3d-volumetric-image-processing.html).

Appreciate if somebody can give me a clue how to do it. Attachement is my CAD file. Thank you

Answer 1

[T.Nikhil kumar]

Hello,

I understand that you want to perform image processing operations on 3D volumetric data obtained from a SolidWorks CAD file.

I would suggest you to try following the below mentioned procedure:

1. You can import the geometry from the CAD file using ‘importGeometry’ function for which the file must be of type ‘stl’ or ‘step’. You can export your CAD file in this format directly from SolidWorks.
2. Most 3D image processing operations in MATLAB are designed to work on binary volumetric images. You will need to convert your geometry into a 3D binary voxel grid, where '1' represents the object and '0' represents the background.
3. You can decide suitable dimensions for the voxel grid that will encompass the cube and initialise it.
4. Iterate over each voxel in the grid and determine whether it lies inside or outside the cube. You can try using the ‘inpolygon’ function to determine voxel occupancy inside or on the edge of the cube and populate the voxel grid accordingly (1 for occupied and 0 for free). You can also define custom functions to determine voxel occupancy if the cube is hollow or a collection of cylinders on edges.
5. You can use the resulting voxel grid for image processing operations. For example: volshow(voxelGrid);

Refer to the following documentation:

• ‘importGeometry’ function: https://www.mathworks.com/help/pde/ug/pde.pdemodel.importgeometry.html
• ‘inpolygon’ function: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/inpolygon.html

Refer to the following question on MATLAB Answers forum where similar workflow is discussed:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/779207-how-to-convert-cad-file-to-points-on-3d-grid-urgent

Hope this helps!