One must force a change in the underlying model to cause the tessellation to be recomputed - for example, by editing a sketch parameter (Setting it to its original value will suffice). In addition, exporting immediately after changing the display tessellation preference value will not have the desired effect because display tessellation is not updated immediately. However, because those parameters control the tessellation used to render shapes on the display, decreasing them will slow down display rendering, often significantly. When exporting from another workbench using File → Export., the tessellation is controlled by the overall display tessellation set in Edit → Preferences. In such cases you may need a finer tessellation value. If you are exporting to use in 3D-printing, this may result in an under-sized hole, for example. This results in slightly under-sized inside dimensions for curved surfaces.
Then I use another 3D software to deal with the same step file, the stl file is very smooth. If this is not the case you have to scale your model. I use the latest FreeCAD 0.17, now I import a step file, then export stl format file.but when I open the stl file exported, I found the model surface is not smooth, I can see obvious edges and corners. The mesh-format STL/OBJ is dimensionless FreeCAD will assume on export that the units used in the model are in mm.
In this tutorial we will cover how to export STL/OBJ-files from FreeCAD. 4 Export Method 2: Using the Mesh Workbench in FreeCAD.3 Export Method 1: Using "File → Export".Solution need to be cross platform usable on Windows Server 2012 (Windows Power Shell) as well with the same versions of FreeCAD and Python. If better constraints/platforms are known, please report back. Output: Binary STL file in mm as supported by FreeCAD Input: STEP/IGES/IGS as supported by FreeCAD Headless (must run from a Linux bash, e.g. Python version which suits FreeCAD interfaceing We're looking for a fast and easy way to convert STEP or IGS/IGES files to STL by using the python interface of FreeCAD.