#127 STL ASCII Import does not work

[Anonymous]

Build from source and latest snapshot tar, compiled on Ubuntu 9.04 according to the instructions do not import STL ASCII files.

Actually the import routine does something (upto 97 %), but no vertex or face is desplayed.
The files are ok. Just plain stl files. They can be read with the compiled windows version of Meshlab, Paraview can read the files under Ubuntu fine, too. Ivcon handles the files without complains, too.

Not even STL files exported with Meshlab can be read.

However, the import of binary STL files works fine.

With the exception of io_epoch and filter_isoparametrization the compilation seemed to work fine.

I would appreciate any solution. Thanks a lot.

Sincerely

Karl-Heinz

This is an example of the stl format I use.

    solid cube_corner
      facet normal 0.0 -1.0 0.0
        outer loop
          vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0
          vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0
          vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0
        endloop
      endfacet
      facet normal 0.0 0.0 -1.0
        outer loop
          vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0
          vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0
          vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0
        endloop
      endfacet
      facet normal 0.0 0.0 -1.0
        outer loop
          vertex 0.0 0.0 0.0
          vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0
          vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0
        endloop
      endfacet
      facet normal 0.577 0.577 0.577
        outer loop
          vertex 1.0 0.0 0.0
          vertex 0.0 1.0 0.0
          vertex 0.0 0.0 1.0
        endloop
      endfacet
    endsolid

[Paolo Cignoni]

Thanks for the bug submission,

There could be a localization issue. Are you running ubuntu in a country where the decimal separator is the comma instead of the dot?

could you try to attach an ascii stl file exported by your compiled version of MeshLab?

thanks!

P.

[Nobody/Anonymous]

Cignoni: Great analysis. You are right. I live in Germany and use the German language for the menus. In Germany the comma is used as the decimal separator.
In my files the decimal separator is a dot, however.
When I switched to English menus, I could perfectly import the ASCII stl files.

Is there any configuration option which I just did not find to select the decimal separator from within Meshlab?

It is inconvenient to change the menu language during working for STL import.

Anyway: thank you very much for this brilliant analysis and the quick help!! Great work!!!

Karl-Heinz

[Paolo Cignoni]

Great. Now i only have to find out a sure way to always override the OS localizing attempts when writing out numbers. IMHO meshlab should NEVER use commas when writing down numbers....

thanks again for the bug submission...

cheers
p.

[Nobody/Anonymous]

I found a workaround (crude, but effective):

The solution for a similar problem was posted here: http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/dezimaltrennzeichen-von-komma-zu-punkt/#post-2118102

In short: the file edit the file /usr/share/i18n/locales/de_DE contains a description of the local German specifics of the character set. There is a section for the number format (LC_NUMERIC) and another for the monetary format (LC_MONETARY).

In those two sections the values for the decimal_point and the thousands_sep have to be exchanged according to ones needs:

<u002c> /x2c COMMA
<u002e> /x2e FULL STOP</u002e></u002c>

Edit in the file /usr/share/i18n/locales/de_DE the section LC_NUMERIC:

Default is:

LC_NUMERIC
decimal_point "<u002c>"
thousands_sep "<u002e>"
grouping 3;3
END LC_NUMERIC</u002e></u002c>

Default is changed to:

LC_NUMERIC
decimal_point "<u002e>"
thousands_sep "<u002c>"
grouping 3;3
END LC_NUMERIC</u002c></u002e>

To make apply the changes enter in a terminal "sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales"

cheers

Karl-Heinz

[Colin Pitrat]

I reported another issue in which I submitted a patch before finding this one:
https://sourceforge.net/p/meshlab/bugs/422/