Meshlab - detailed merged meshes not exporting to u3d

Question

In Meshlab, I'm attempting to export two merged meshes to u3d format. The meshes are quite detailed (orthodontic models used for making braces). Individually, they export without problem. However, once I've merged them, exporting to u3d creates the tex file but not the u3d file. There is no error message and Meshlab gives the same report as it would if it had worked.

Simplifying the merged mesh prior to export makes it work, so I would hazard a guess that the problem is due to the size of/number of vertices in the combined mesh. However, I've been specifically asked not to simplify. Is there any other way I might solve the issue?

It does have to be u3d format as they're being put into pdfs (although exporting the un-simplified merged mesh to other formats does work).

I think it's unlikely to be a hardware issue (Broadwell-E CPU, 32GB RAM).

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Meghann,

I am having the same problem here... My model is not complicated at all... Found an article that points out a solition, but it does not change a thing...

https://github.com/cnr-isti-vclab/meshlab/issues/33

Answer 2

This issue has been coming up on sites for some years now, as in b2unit's link (see also https://github.com/cnr-isti-vclab/meshlab/issues/228), so despite the time lag I'll post an answer.

I encountered the problem when trying to export .stl meshes (produced from VG Studio MAX) as .u3d using MeshLab v2016.12. I'm working on a MacBook (OS 10.14.6). I tried other posted solutions (like exporting first to .ply, then reimporting and exporting as .u3d) to no avail.

I discovered that regardless of the name of the .stl file, when the file name I choose for the .u3d export has a space in it, MeshLab produces only the .tex file. When the file name has no space in it, MeshLab produces both .tex and .u3d files.

Conceivably there are multiple issues causing failure to produce the u3d file.