FreeCAD shape.read() Error: Unsupported format

Question

I am working on a project in which I have to convert a .dae file to .stl file. I am using the code given below

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\FreeCAD 0.17\\bin\\")
import FreeCAD
import Part
import Mesh
shape = Part.Shape()
shape.read('INPUTFILE.dae')
doc = App.newDocument('Doc')
pf = doc.addObject("Part::Feature","MyShape")
pf.Shape = shape
Mesh.export([pf], 'OUTPUTFILE.stl')

I get an error when the interpreter tries to execute the command shape.read('INPUTFILE.dae'). According to this the code should be able to handle .dae input files. The error I get is concerning invalid input file format:

shape.read('INPUTFILE.dae')
FreeCADError: {'swhat': 'Unknown extension', 'sfunction': '', 'btranslatable': False, 'sfile': '', 'sclassname': 'class Base::Exception', 'breported': True, 'sErrMsg': 'Unknown extension', 'iline': 0}

I also have pycollada installed on the system.

Does anyone know how to tackle this problem?

Cathepsin

Answer 1

You need to pip install pycollada. Then in your code, import importDAE and then insert the shape file.

When you insert it, you'll get a new document object whose Mesh property contains the shape. Then you can export the mesh as an stl.

Something like below.

BTW, I figured this out by doing it in the GUI and looking at the python console. All the commands are there and I just had to adapt them to a script.

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/home/brad/FCD/FC/lib')
import FreeCAD
import Part
import Mesh
import importDAE

doc = App.newDocument('Doc')
newobj = importDAE.insert(u"/home/brad/Desktop/efdae.dae","Unnamed1")
Mesh.export([newobj.Mesh], 'my_shape.stl')

Mongolian

Thanks a lot. I also figured from your comment on the other post that I could accomplish this using the code from Python Console in FreeCAD. That's a really cool feature they have. – Cathepsin