3Shape- ULDC (Lava) files

[e...w...h]

Anybody having any luck completing LAVA designs in 3Shape and exporting ULDC files for milling?

3Shape is actually generating the file but it is coming up as incompatible at remote milling centers.

s?

 

[cap_yk]

there are two common error messages involved with importing 3shape files into 3m lava mills.

if you import scans into a case, you will get an error that says:
"scanner type not supported"
i can show you how to make a case with imported scans work, though..

if you get the message:
"inconsistencies in model" error, you have to touch up your design. most of the time, that error is due to a minimum thickness issue.

hope this helps. let me know if you have more questions.

yuri

 

[Mark Jackson]

Anybody having any luck completing LAVA designs in 3Shape and exporting ULDC files for milling?

3Shape is actually generating the file but it is coming up as incompatible at remote milling centers.

s?

All we use now is 3Shape scanners. Our LAVA scanner is only plugged into the network because it has to be for the mill to run. It's actually in another part of the lab, under a cover and plugged into the CAD CAM SubLAN as an address but not doing anything.

No problem milling 3Shape files on the LAVA mill.

 

[e...w...h]

Scott, thanks for the quick help.. you're a lifesaver.

Mark, we are exporting files as we should be (ULDC) and sending them off to a milling center, who will remain nameless. This milling center is telling me that there is something wrong with the files and they cannot mill them. As someone mentioned above, "invalid scanner type" or something to that effect.

Is it a software thing on their end? 3Shape seems to think so.

 

[DMC]

Well, we had no luck opening the uldc with two different versions of Lava Design and DentalShaper....

I hate the whole ULDC bull5hit. 3M and 3shape both have caused me a nightmare trying to deal with this along with many others I have talked to. Talk about wasted time!

Skip this step and just export in dcm or stl and no more problems with us at least. Also, if your case does not meet 3Ms requirements...then you still have an open file you can have made in another material. locked files just plain suck.



Sorry Eric.

 

[e...w...h]

No problem, Scott. Thanks for your help.

What are you using to convert stls to ULDCs?

 

[Mark Jackson]

Mark, we are exporting files as we should be (ULDC) and sending them off to a milling center, who will remain nameless. This milling center is telling me that there is something wrong with the files and they cannot mill them. Is it a software thing on their end? 3Shape seems to think so.

I just spoke to one of our IT guys and he said the Lava Lab has to be completely up to date on their software. All we had to do was have a new module loaded on the 3Shape manager (may have cost a few $$) allowing for an additional dropdown menu item for Lava files (sounds like what you are doing).

The Lava (ULDC) file is generated and sent to the Lava network, which has the latest and greatest from 3M on it.

We do it all day long here, but we don't use any funky software or anything intermediately to make it work.

Feel free to call me tomorrow and I can put one of our support guys on the phone to walk you through it.

 

[DMC]

Same here Mark. It does not always work.
We both know what you are doing, it's the same thing we are doing.

We've been accepting ULDCs for a long time now. Always hated it.

 

[Slipstream]

We also run the ULDC's just fine from 3Shape - some teething problems - but minor. Pretty sure the Lava upgrade was free for the 3Shape owners and even 3M did not want to take a slice to accept them - nice if some of the other mill and block suppliers would accept if I can run their machine fom a 3Shape, they will sell more blocks - $5k to accept the files makes a lot of people look for an alternate.

 

[e...w...h]

I just spoke to one of our IT guys and he said the Lava Lab has to be completely up to date on their software. All we had to do was have a new module loaded on the 3Shape manager (may have cost a few $$) allowing for an additional dropdown menu item for Lava files (sounds like what you are doing).

The Lava (ULDC) file is generated and sent to the Lava network, which has the latest and greatest from 3M on it.

We do it all day long here, but we don't use any funky software or anything intermediately to make it work.

Feel free to call me tomorrow and I can put one of our support guys on the phone to walk you through it.

Yep, we have that module and we've tried every single possible way of creating that ULDC file just to make sure it wasn't part of our process creating the problem. Sure enough... it's not. The only other thing I can think of is a possible corrupt LAVAdme file, but 3Shape does not think that's the issue.

I do not know why LAVA doesn't make a move to stl... it's clear they are opening up the system a bit and it only makes sense to make that part of the process standard.

Mark, do you mind if I sent you a file just to try out? All our files are created with the latest 2.6.9.10 dlls... the possible culprit. I want to try and eliminate that possibility if I can and if you say you are milling yours just fine, I'd love to see if you can make these files work.

 

[cap_yk]

ewh, i AM the support guy and part of IT at CAP.. we used to run into this error too. pretty easy fix, just tedious. im guessing that these are either COS scans or you're importing scans into a case. unfortunately, if your file is telling you 'scanner type not supported'.. you cannot use that particular design. you will have to reset and re-import the scans using a particular method. it usually takes us about 10-15 minutes to fix this error because it does require a redesign. if youre interested, id be happy to show you how it's done.

yuri

 

[DMC]

Quit teasing us and spill the beans if you have any real insight.

If it takes 10-15 minutes, then that sucks and is not a good long term solution.

I say, screw the whole ULDC and just make a .*** or .stl and run case through Sum3D or DelCam and be done with it. Issaquah has both, or you can still try using us.

Eric, I have no idea why Issaquah has problems with this. They have been hacking files for years now. Did the smart guys get fired/quit??

 

[cap_yk]

edit

 

[e...w...h]

ewh, i AM the support guy and part of IT at CAP.. we used to run into this error too. pretty easy fix, just tedious. im guessing that these are either COS scans or you're importing scans into a case. unfortunately, if your file is telling you 'scanner type not supported'.. you cannot use that particular design. you will have to reset and re-import the scans using a particular method. it usually takes us about 10-15 minutes to fix this error because it does require a redesign. if youre interested, id be happy to show you how it's done.

yuri

I'd love to know how it's done. Thank you!

Can you post here or would you like to PM me?

Thanks Yuri!

 

[cap_yk]

i will post here so everyone can see.. just remember, as i mentioned before, it's not an ideal solution and you WILL need to redesign the case, but it's the only one where you don't need to rescan the case in order to push it through to the mill.

Before you do anything, pull up your case in dental manager, select it, right click and select advanced > export (to file) to export the case as is. I find saving it on the desktop is easiest. Then, find the compressed file you just created and extract the folder (case) somewhere you can find it (again, i used the desktop for quick access). You must have a lava case that has gone through the typical workflow (scan, design, output). Your new case will be under this order's ID (if you will need this case in the future, remember to create a copy or export the case). Pull it up in dental manager,
right click it, select reset > created. This will set the case back to the order form selection stage. Right click the case again and select modify to modify the order form. Reset the order form to the correct specifications and press okay. Now, right click the case and select reset > scanned. When you refresh the selection, it should show you a
red error message saying it's missing the folder containing the model scans. You need to create a new folder in the case's directory on your server's hard drive and give it the same name as the missing folder in the red error message. It'll be something like: "ModelJobID_MJIDxxxxxxxxxx_0" with some sort of number there instead of the X's. You will then put your scans into that folder and refresh the dental manager to confirm that the models imported correctly. It sounds more confusing than it is, I'd say it's more tedious than anything.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions

Yuri

 

[e...w...h]

i will post here so everyone can see.. just remember, as i mentioned before, it's not an ideal solution and you WILL need to redesign the case, but it's the only one where you don't need to rescan the case in order to push it through to the mill.

Before you do anything, pull up your case in dental manager, select it, right click and select advanced > export (to file) to export the case as is. I find saving it on the desktop is easiest. Then, find the compressed file you just created and extract the folder (case) somewhere you can find it (again, i used the desktop for quick access). You must have a lava case that has gone through the typical workflow (scan, design, output). Your new case will be under this order's ID (if you will need this case in the future, remember to create a copy or export the case). Pull it up in dental manager,
right click it, select reset > created. This will set the case back to the order form selection stage. Right click the case again and select modify to modify the order form. Reset the order form to the correct specifications and press okay. Now, right click the case and select reset > scanned. When you refresh the selection, it should show you a
red error message saying it's missing the folder containing the model scans. You need to create a new folder in the case's directory on your server's hard drive and give it the same name as the missing folder in the red error message. It'll be something like: "ModelJobID_MJIDxxxxxxxxxx_0" with some sort of number there instead of the X's. You will then put your scans into that folder and refresh the dental manager to confirm that the models imported correctly. It sounds more confusing than it is, I'd say it's more tedious than anything.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions

Yuri

Actually, we are not importing scans at all... we are scanning in 3Shape, designing under "LAVA interface" with LAVA export settings and generating CAM output as normal. We are getting the ULDC files as we should be and we are following instructions to a T... but that ULDC file is still incompatible. We are on 2.6.9.10, fwiw.

 

[cap_yk]

hmm.. i c. it sounded a lot like what happened with our scan imports.. would you mind sending the files over, so i could take a look and give it a shot?

 

[DMC]

Single units. The meshs did not look funny in Materialize magics. Units all milled just fine using Sum3D.

Wouldn't open with two different Lava Design versions intended to actually open ULDCs.

Very frustrating, and was the driving factor for me to go out and purchase open CAM.

 

[DMC]

i will post here so everyone can see.. just remember, as i mentioned before, it's not an ideal solution and you WILL need to redesign the case, but it's the only one where you don't need to rescan the case in order to push it through to the mill.

Before you do anything, pull up your case in dental manager, select it, right click and select advanced > export (to file) to export the case as is. I find saving it on the desktop is easiest. Then, find the compressed file you just created and extract the folder (case) somewhere you can find it (again, i used the desktop for quick access). You must have a lava case that has gone through the typical workflow (scan, design, output). Your new case will be under this order's ID (if you will need this case in the future, remember to create a copy or export the case). Pull it up in dental manager,
right click it, select reset > created. This will set the case back to the order form selection stage. Right click the case again and select modify to modify the order form. Reset the order form to the correct specifications and press okay. Now, right click the case and select reset > scanned. When you refresh the selection, it should show you a
red error message saying it's missing ..............
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions

Yuri

We mess around like this at times (before we had translator)

We could have a finished Lava file, and switch the materials.
Just create a new case using the material you really wanted, and copy/paste the CAD data from old to new. rename and add the secret code to designate the material. Poof!

This would be to save the labor of rescanning and redesigning.
Like if a case was too large for a Lava block, and we wanted to export as stl for different material. etc.

Scott

 

[e...w...h]

hmm.. i c. it sounded a lot like what happened with our scan imports.. would you mind sending the files over, so i could take a look and give it a shot?

no problem... email address?