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How to get STL Thumbnail View using Windows Explorer

Discussion in 'Software' started by danzca6, Jan 22, 2016.

  1. nicohirsch

    nicohirsch New Member

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    Thank you very much! :)
     
  2. Rigmarol

    Rigmarol Well-Known Member

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    Thank you.
    Downloaded the demo and installed. The thumbnails are great to have!
    I'm running Windows 10pro on a Surface pro 3.
     
  3. gil hilel

    gil hilel New Member

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    can you please send a copy of the software? their site is under maintenance and I can't find it anywhere.
     
  4. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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  5. Section 31HQ

    Section 31HQ New Member

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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  7. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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  8. Rigmarol

    Rigmarol Well-Known Member

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  9. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    If anyone is having issues getting the Marlin3DprinterTool to work for previewing the STL files. Open up the installation directory, C:\Program Files (x86)\Marlin3DprinterTool (where mine is installed), then open STL thumbnail debug.rtf and follow the instructions. Once completed the STL preview will be functional in Windows Explorer.

    I have noticed sizing issues, pretty slow compared to the K-Studio Solution but all-in-all it works....sometimes! The previews tend to be generated faster when testing using the ServerManager. If you use Icons inside Windows Explorer (I typically use the Details option with the Preview Pane), the thumbnails seem to load faster than the Preview Pane. But if you have a folder with a bunch of STLs, it will take quite some time to load all. However once you open a folder to view the STLs, it is caching the images which allows them to load quicker. But the Preview Pane tends to take the same amount of time regardless. The orientation of the Thumbnails/Previews are not Isometric Views of the parts current XYZ orientation.
     

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    danzca6 likes this.
  10. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    I'm actually surprised that Microsoft hasn't realized that this would be great functionality to include native to windows. It would be nice if in the preview we could rotate the object as well. Thanks for testing the new method. It is nice to have options. I wonder if this new method will work for those that couldn't get K-Studio to work with there Windows installation. With large stl library's it is a must have to find what you are looking for at times.
     
  11. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @danzca6 Microsoft will be pushing their own 3D file format moving forward. Beside STL is a crappy format and was created just to get something to work. It is not extensible, nor does it contain any representation of color, texture or other common CAD model attributes, there is no scale information, and the units are arbitrary..
     
  12. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    You can open the STL file using the Marlin3DprinterSTL program which then does allow rotation and you can increase the size of the program window.
     
  13. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, lets deal with apples rather than applesauce :)
    We need something more akin to an actual 3D model format.
     
    Ryan TeGantvoort likes this.
  14. Merci Sanmi

    Merci Sanmi New Member

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    Worked out a method.

    It had indeed to do with that .dll

    I attach a zip file with the instructions in the ReadMe.txt

    Regards!!

    ------------------------------

    UPDATE

    So, this apparently isn't working... I'll try to fix it ASAP, but it seems difficult.

    In case you were wondering, what I did was record the changes in the Registery during the installation of K-Studio-Demo using a version of RegShot called X-Regshot 2.0.1.70, and created a .reg file with it.

    Then I uninstalled the program and copied the .dll files to where they used to be and ran the .reg file.
     

    Attached Files:

    #54 Merci Sanmi, Dec 27, 2016
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2016
  15. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Wow, I had given up on this completely I am glad to see someone was still interested enough to work on this, thanks @Merci Sanmi :)
     
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  16. Merci Sanmi

    Merci Sanmi New Member

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    You are welcome :)

    Please confirm that it works, just in case I have to change something...
     
  17. PantherZA

    PantherZA New Member

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    That reg file doesn't wotk and there is a lot of other keys in there ......
     
  18. Adrian Wolf

    Adrian Wolf New Member

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    New user -- so I cannot post links yet, but if you'd care to try this tool -- "Marlin3DPrinterTool" (found on GitHub) it includes a way to register automatically to have the STLs displayed in Windows Explorer...and it works great...

    https:// github.com/ cabbagecreek/ Marlin3DprinterTool?1487570521729=1

    (remove spaces from URL above)

    It's still in active development and there are a few tutorials on YouTube on the use of the app...I think I'm running the Beta 0.18 version (?) but YMMV
     
  19. PantherZA

    PantherZA New Member

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    But it does not even open on Windows 10 Pro
     
  20. Adrian Wolf

    Adrian Wolf New Member

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    I'm running it fine on Windows 10 Home (64 Bit) personally -- but not sure what would block it on Win10Pro version (outside of a corporate environment) sorry...As I said, it's in active development so dev may be able to assist and/or be able to provide instructions to work around
     

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