Displaying an STL mesh.
user: I am a programmer with Python language.
I have one stl file.
I want to display the mesh from the stl file using pythreejs library.
What is the code like?
assistant: To display an STL mesh file using pythreejs library in Python, you can follow the steps below:
-
Install the necessary libraries:
!pip install pythreejs numpy -
Import the required libraries:
import numpy as np from pythreejs import * -
Load the STL mesh file using numpy:
# Load the STL file using numpy stl_mesh = np.load('path_to_stl_file') -
Create a mesh object using the pythreejs library:
# Create a geometry object geometry = BufferGeometry( attributes={ "position": BufferAttribute(stl_mesh['vertices']), "normal": BufferAttribute(stl_mesh['normals']) }, # Define the indices of the faces indices=BufferAttribute(stl_mesh['faces']) ) # Create a material object material = MeshStandardMaterial( color='white', # Set the color of the mesh side='DoubleSide' # Display both sides of the mesh ) # Create a mesh object mesh = Mesh(geometry=geometry, material=material) -
Create a scene object and add the mesh object to it:
# Create a scene object scene = Scene() # Add the mesh object to the scene scene.add(mesh) -
Create a camera and renderer object and render the scene:
# Create a camera object camera = PerspectiveCamera(position=[10, 10, 10], aspect=1) # Create a renderer object renderer = Renderer(camera=camera, scene=scene, controls=[OrbitControls(controlling=camera)]) # Render the scene renderer.render()
The full code for displaying an STL mesh using pythreejs would look like:
import numpy as np
from pythreejs import *
# Load the STL file using numpy
stl_mesh = np.load('path_to_stl_file')
# Create a geometry object
geometry = BufferGeometry(
attributes={
"position": BufferAttribute(stl_mesh['vertices']),
"normal": BufferAttribute(stl_mesh['normals'])
},
indices=BufferAttribute(stl_mesh['faces'])
)
# Create a material object
material = MeshStandardMaterial(
color='white',
side='DoubleSide'
)
# Create a mesh object
mesh = Mesh(geometry=geometry, material=material)
# Create a scene object
scene = Scene()
# Add the mesh object to the scene
scene.add(mesh)
# Create a camera object
camera = PerspectiveCamera(position=[10, 10, 10], aspect=1)
# Create a renderer object
renderer = Renderer(camera=camera, scene=scene, controls=[OrbitControls(controlling=camera)])
# Render the scene
renderer.render()
Make sure to replace the path_to_stl_file variable with the actual path of your STL file.
user: stl file including mesh information can not be handled by np.load function.
What should I do?
assistant: If your STL file contains mesh information, you cannot load it directly using np.load() function. Instead, you need to use a third-party library to read and parse the STL file data. One such library is the numpy-stl library, which provides functions to read and write STL files in Python.
You can install the numpy-stl library using the following command:
!pip install numpy-stl
Then, you can use the numpy-stl library to read the STL file and extract the mesh information. Here is an example code:
import numpy as np
from stl import mesh
from pythreejs import *
# Load the STL file using numpy-stl
stl_mesh = mesh.Mesh.from_file('path_to_stl_file')
# Get the vertices and faces from the mesh object
vertices = stl_mesh.vectors.reshape((-1, 3))
faces = np.arange(len(vertices)).reshape((-1, 3))
# Create a geometry object
geometry = BufferGeometry(
attributes={
"position": BufferAttribute(vertices),
},
indices=BufferAttribute(faces)
)
# Create a material object
material = MeshStandardMaterial(
color='white',
side='DoubleSide'
)
# Create a mesh object
mesh = Mesh(geometry=geometry, material=material)
# Create a scene object
scene = Scene()
# Add the mesh object to the scene
scene.add(mesh)
# Create a camera object
camera = PerspectiveCamera(position=[10, 10, 10], aspect=1)
# Create a renderer object
renderer = Renderer(camera=camera, scene=scene, controls=[OrbitControls(controlling=camera)])
# Render the scene
renderer.render()
Make sure to replace the path_to_stl_file variable with the actual path of your STL file.
user: All displayed meshes are black and it seems there is no light.
How can I make it visible and add color with light?
assistant: To make the mesh visible and add color with light, you can do the following:
-
Add lighting to the scene:
# Create a directional light light = DirectionalLight(position=[3, 5, 1], intensity=0.6) # Add the light to the scene scene.add(light) -
Add a material to the mesh with the desired color:
# Create a material object material = MeshLambertMaterial( color='#FA8072', # Set the color of the mesh side='DoubleSide' # Display both sides of the mesh )
Here is the updated code to display the STL mesh with lighting and color:
import numpy as np
from stl import mesh
from pythreejs import *
# Load the STL file using numpy-stl
stl_mesh = mesh.Mesh.from_file('path_to_stl_file')
# Get the vertices and faces from the mesh object
vertices = stl_mesh.vectors.reshape((-1, 3))
faces = np.arange(len(vertices)).reshape((-1, 3))
# Create a geometry object
geometry = BufferGeometry(
attributes={
"position": BufferAttribute(vertices),
},
indices=BufferAttribute(faces)
)
# Create a material object with color
material = MeshLambertMaterial(
color='#FA8072',
side='DoubleSide'
)
# Create a mesh object
mesh = Mesh(geometry=geometry, material=material)
# Create a scene object
scene = Scene()
# Add the mesh object to the scene
scene.add(mesh)
# Create a directional light
light = DirectionalLight(position=[3, 5, 1], intensity=0.6)
# Add the light to the scene
scene.add(light)
# Create a camera object
camera = PerspectiveCamera(position=[10, 10, 10], aspect=1)
# Create a renderer object
renderer = Renderer(camera=camera, scene=scene, controls=[OrbitControls(controlling=camera)])
# Render the scene
renderer.render()
This code will display the STL mesh with a pinkish-red color and lighting. You can adjust the color and lighting intensity to your desired values.
user: The displayed mesh does not have depth and shadow part.
How can I create that?
assistant: To add depth and shadows to the displayed mesh, you can use a MeshPhysicalMaterial material and add a DirectionalLight with a ShadowMap to the scene.
Here's the updated code to add depth and shadows:
import numpy as np
from stl import mesh
from pythreejs import *
# Load the STL file using numpy-stl
stl_mesh = mesh.Mesh.from_file('path_to_stl_file')
# Get the vertices and faces from the mesh object
vertices = stl_mesh.vectors.reshape((-1, 3))
faces = np.arange(len(vertices)).reshape((-1, 3))
# Create a geometry object
geometry = BufferGeometry(
attributes={
"position": BufferAttribute(vertices),
},
indices=BufferAttribute(faces)
)
# Create a material object with color and depth
material = MeshPhysicalMaterial(
color='#FA8072',
side='DoubleSide',
depthWrite=True,
depthTest=True,
roughness=0.5,
metalness=0.5
)
# Create a mesh object
mesh = Mesh(geometry=geometry, material=material)
# Create a scene object
scene = Scene()
# Add the mesh object to the scene
scene.add(mesh)
# Create a directional light
light = DirectionalLight(
position=[3, 5, 1],
intensity=0.6,
shadowMapEnabled=True
)
# Add the light to the scene
scene.add(light)
# Create a shadow camera
shadow_camera = OrthographicCamera(
left=-5, right=5, top=5, bottom=-5,
near=-10, far=20
)
# Set the shadow camera properties
light.shadow.camera = shadow_camera
light.shadow.bias = -0.001
light.shadow.radius = 1
# Create a shadow material
shadow_material = ShadowMaterial(
opacity=0.5
)
# Create a plane to receive shadows
shadow_plane = Mesh(
PlaneBufferGeometry(50, 50),
shadow_material,
receiveShadow=True,
rotation=[-np.pi / 2, 0, 0],
position=[0, -10, 0]
)
# Add the plane to the scene
scene.add(shadow_plane)
# Create a camera object
camera = PerspectiveCamera(position=[10, 10, 10], aspect=1)
# Create a renderer object
renderer = Renderer(camera=camera, scene=scene, controls=[OrbitControls(controlling=camera)])
# Render the scene
renderer.render()
In this code, we have added the depthWrite and depthTest parameters to the MeshPhysicalMaterial object to enable depth rendering. We have also added a ShadowMap to the DirectionalLight object and created a ShadowMaterial for the plane that receives the shadows.
This should create a mesh with depth and shadows. You can adjust the camera and light positions to achieve the desired effect.
user: I can not still see the depth and shadow. Do I need to add normal vector information to the mesh?
assistant: Yes, adding normal vectors to the mesh can improve the accuracy of depth and shadow rendering.
You can compute the normal vectors for each face of the mesh using the mesh.normals attribute in numpy-stl, and then add these normal vectors to the geometry object in pythreejs.
Here's the updated code with normal vectors added to the geometry object:
import numpy as np
from stl import mesh
from pythreejs import *
# Load the STL file using numpy-stl
stl_mesh = mesh.Mesh.from_file('path_to_stl_file')
# Get the vertices, faces, and normals from the mesh object
vertices = stl_mesh.vectors.reshape((-1, 3))
faces = np.arange(len(vertices)).reshape((-1, 3))
normals = stl_mesh.normals.reshape((-1, 3))
# Create a geometry object with position and normal attributes
geometry = BufferGeometry(
attributes={
"position": BufferAttribute(vertices),
"normal": BufferAttribute(normals)
},
indices=BufferAttribute(faces)
)
# Create a material object with color and depth
material = MeshPhysicalMaterial(
color='#FA8072',
side='DoubleSide',
depthWrite=True,
depthTest=True,
roughness=0.5,
metalness=0.5
)
# Create a mesh object
mesh = Mesh(geometry=geometry, material=material)
# Create a scene object
scene = Scene()
# Add the mesh object to the scene
scene.add(mesh)
# Create a directional light
light = DirectionalLight(
position=[3, 5, 1],
intensity=0.6,
shadowMapEnabled=True
)
# Add the light to the scene
scene.add(light)
# Create a shadow camera
shadow_camera = OrthographicCamera(
left=-5, right=5, top=5, bottom=-5,
near=-10, far=20
)
# Set the shadow camera properties
light.shadow.camera = shadow_camera
light.shadow.bias = -0.001
light.shadow.radius = 1
# Create a shadow material
shadow_material = ShadowMaterial(
opacity=0.5
)
# Create a plane to receive shadows
shadow_plane = Mesh(
PlaneBufferGeometry(50, 50),
shadow_material,
receiveShadow=True,
rotation=[-np.pi / 2, 0, 0],
position=[0, -10, 0]
)
# Add the plane to the scene
scene.add(shadow_plane)
# Create a camera object
camera = PerspectiveCamera(position=[10, 10, 10], aspect=1)
# Create a renderer object
renderer = Renderer(camera=camera, scene=scene, controls=[OrbitControls(controlling=camera)])
# Render the scene
renderer.render()
Note that in this code, we have added the normal vectors to the geometry object by creating a BufferAttribute object with the normals array and passing it as an attribute to the BufferGeometry object.
With the addition of normal vectors, the mesh should have more accurate depth and shadow rendering. If the issue still persists, you may want to experiment with adjusting the camera and light positions or adding more lights to the scene.