DIYEFI.org Forum

I think I made the breakthrough on how to convert usual manufacturer supplied STEP files into VRML with pure OSS solution.

The key is Gmsh meshing software, available here:

http://www.geuz.org/gmsh/

It's available as binaries and source. It seems to work great, if a bit slow. It outputs both VRML directly and STL with all bodies included, if tweaking in Wings3d is preferred (the software does have geometry manipulators on it's own)

The workflow goes like this:

Open model
(wait until it's loaded, may take some time)
set element size, the button on lower left corner with two triangles; I found 0.1 - 0.15 suitable for the Cinch enclosure.
Mesh the geometry with the 3D button
(again may take some time)
Save as ... (VRML ASCII or STL Binary)

...and done!

Cool! :-)

Lukewarm at best

It's still one huge workaround, and no conversion program will ever fully solve the issue like native support would.

A much better solution has emerged:

free-cad has gained good meshing tools.

The method:
Open file into freecad
switch to mesh editing mode
select the geometry you want meshed from the tree at the left
from Meshes pulldown menu, choose Create mesh from geometry; you'll be given a prompt on mesh density

...and now you have a nice meshed object Freecad's mesher does a hell of a lot nicer job than Gmsh too.

Sweet! :-)