How to keep the position and orientation when loading the custom model tooth 3D file?

[jbaeaa]

Hello!

I am new to exoCAD, and I would greatly appreciate your expertise in the problem I am facing!

Typical crown placing pipeline of exoCAD involves first loading the full anatomic template pontics/tooth model from the default tooth library and editing them from there.

The task I am facing is a bit different.
For each case, I am already given the tooth files that I need to use for the workflow, and they are just plain 3D files in .obj file type. (not an eoff tooth model)
The thing is, these crowns are already perfectly positioned, oriented, and edited with respect to the jaw files and their margin lines.

I need exoCAD to simply adapt these existing teeth files to the margin line and design the connectors.

ExoCAD does allow loading a custom tooth model from a plain .obj file in expert mode.

But here is the part I am struggling with:
Like I mentioned, the custom tooth 3D .obj files are already in optimal position, so when I load them to exoCAD as a custom teeth model, exoCAD needs to maintain their position and size, and let me continue the workflow from there.
However, when I load them, exoCAD decides to change the position and size based on what it thinks is the best initial orientation, which is undesirable.

1. If I load these custom tooth .obj files as "Generic visualization mesh", then the orientation is maintained. Is there a way to first load them as a generic visualization mesh, and then convert them into a full anatomic?

2. If not, is there a plugin, or option to turn off the automatic re-positioning/re-sizing of the full anatomic upon loading the custom teeth files?

From my understanding, the default teeth models (eoff files) do not have explicit position information (because they are just templates), so exoCAD automatically positions them when creating the full anatomic. But in my case, I have already-made crowns and pontics for individual cases, so the position information is relevant.

Thank you so much in advance, and looking forward to your insights!

 

[J Taylor]

Just load them in the design as a waxup as opposed to a generic visualization . I think this literally will do everything you need

 

[jbaeaa]

Just load them in the design as a waxup as opposed to a generic visualization . I think this literally will do everything you need

I really appreciate your response and expertise, that worked!
Waxup calculation tool allows me to adapt the tooth mesh directly dropped into the scene as waxup.

Just one more question actually:
I also have cases where there are multiple teeth mesh files to load, and I have to design the connectors (including pontics in between) with exoCAD to make the bridges.

When I directly drop the crowns and pontics to the scene as waxup scans and run the waxup calculation, only the crowns are recognized as Anatomic Waxup, and the pontic teeth are just ignored.

I am aware that the bridge design step does not usually take place, considering the purpose of waxup, but if I could make exoCAD recognize the pontics as well, it would be great.

Hope I am clear enough

Thank you again for your insights!

 

[ToofMaker]

To get exocad to recognize the pontics, the mesh needs to be solid prior to loading it in. You can do this a number of ways, the easiest I find is to just throw it into to meshmixer, perform a boolean union or utilize the "make solid" tool. When using the "make solid" tool, change the solid type to "accurate edge preserve" and change the solid accuracy and mesh density to about 256 to prevent loss of detail. The J Taylor account is also me, just from a different computer logged into a different account with a password I cant remember

 

[jbaeaa]

To get exocad to recognize the pontics, the mesh needs to be solid prior to loading it in. You can do this a number of ways, the easiest I find is to just throw it into to meshmixer, perform a boolean union or utilize the "make solid" tool. When using the "make solid" tool, change the solid type to "accurate edge preserve" and change the solid accuracy and mesh density to about 256 to prevent loss of detail. The J Taylor account is also me, just from a different computer logged into a different account with a password I cant remember

Thats a cool trick - performing make solid to first merging all the crown files to a single mesh worked like a charm.
Thanks again for your expertise!!