How to read 3D mesh STL file

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Muhammad Adil
Muhammad Adil on 22 Oct 2019
Edited: DGM on 3 Oct 2025 at 9:54
Hello Everyone,
I created a 3D model in Solidworks and improt this model into Netgen mesh generator to creat a 3D volume mesh.
And now I am trying to import and read that 3D volum mesh into MATLAB. I want to extract the vertices and elements of the mesh.
Please help me to read the .stl file and then extract the vertices and elements.
Thanks
  2 Comments
karim botros
karim botros on 28 Feb 2020
Edited: DGM on 4 Apr 2025
Can you explain more ? what have you tried and what doesn't work ?
you can try to import stl mesh to matlab by
fv = stlread('femur.stl');
source :
Aldo Caraceto
Aldo Caraceto on 15 May 2020
Edited: DGM on 4 Apr 2025
I believe you should use importGeometry from Partial Differential Equation Toolbox.
Best,
Aldo

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Answers (1)

DGM
DGM on 4 Apr 2025
Edited: DGM on 3 Oct 2025 at 9:54
If your goal is to create a DiscreteGeometry object (for the PDE toolbox), then importGeometry() is what you'd use, but otherwise it's not necessary for general STL reading.
Use stlread() in any MATLAB version from R2018b to present. It will return a triangulation object containing the face and vertex data.
Unless you're a time traveller trapped in 2011, there's no good reason to use FEX #22409. It has problems, and there are better legacy tools on the FEX. See FEX #182013, which is fully featured and should be compatible with older versions.

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