Scaling an STL in FreeCAD

I found a new way to scale STLs in FreeCAD where you don’t need to use the Python console.

Import the STL.
Go to the Part Workbench.
Select the STL in the Model list
Menu: Part->Create shape from mesh…
Select the new part
Menu: Part->convert to solid
Select the new part
Menu: Part->Refine shape
Change to the Draft Workbench
Menu: Draft->Clone

Now you can adjust the scale in the properties window of the clone.

10 thoughts on “Scaling an STL in FreeCAD

  1. Finally a solution. 🙂 And it’s not only for resizing, but having just stl doesn’t work for many other operations.
    Thanks man!

  2. How do I make the clone visible? Whenever I draft clone an object, I get an invisible object without the ‘visible’ property…

  3. Hi ! As soon when I try to create shape from mesh, the program is not responding (version 0.18) any ideas?
    Thanks!

  4. Program no”t responding” is likely just the program taking really long to make the conversion. One conversion I did took over 15 minutes, but it does finish. I could tell it was working because the CPU fan was running fast!

  5. Blue circle of indeterminate delay when you use a complex STL (like a mini from D&D). It get’s there eventually, but wow this is slow. I’m on a 10th gen Intel I9 with 32gb of RAM and it still takes a minute for each of these steps.

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