Digitized Data to 3D

Digitized Data to 3D — screenshot of the i3D Workbench interface — Digitized Data to 3D in the i3D Workbench (real interface, v2026.10).

Key factsdigitized-to-3d

Group	Input
Status	Available
Input	.nc, .g00, .dig, .pun
Output	STL (binary)
Max upload	300 MB per file
Runs in	Desktop browser with WebGL 2 (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) — computation on Ahaborg's C++ backend
Billing	Pay-per-use credits, no subscription
Documented in	i3D Workbench User & Reference Manual v2026.10

Overview

Upload a file produced by a touch-probe digitizer or scanner. The file is sent to the server, converted into a surface, and opened in Model View, where you set the stylus geometry and processing options and export an STL — or send the model straight to MillX.

Model View — object size, stylus, processing sliders and export.

Step by step

Open Digitized Data to 3D from Select Mode.
Click or drag-and-drop the scan file (.nc, .g00, .dig, .pun; max 300 MB) and click Process.
Model View opens with the reconstructed surface. Check Object Size.
Set the Mill / Stylus shape (Flat / Round) and diameter used during digitizing — the server compensates the probe geometry.
Adjust Reduction, Smoothing and Scale. Each change recomputes the mesh on the server (debounced).
Click Export STL to download the mesh, or Send to MillX to continue with a milling job.

Controls

Upload page

Control	Range / values	Default	What it does
Upload area	.nc .g00 .dig .pun · ≤ 300 MB	—	Click or drag-and-drop a digitized file.
Process	—	—	Uploads the file to the server and starts the conversion. Appears after a valid file is selected.
Remove	—	—	Clears the selected file so you can pick a different one.

Model View — Object Size

Read-only X / Y / Z size of the digitized object in mm.

Model View — Mill / Stylus

Control	Range / values	Default	What it does
Shape	Flat · Round	Round	Tip geometry of the probe/stylus used when the data was captured.
Diameter	—	—	Stylus diameter (mm). Needed to compensate the probe offset on the reconstructed surface.

Model View — Processing

Control	Range / values	Default	What it does
Reduction	1 – 15	3	Mesh simplification. Higher = fewer triangles.
Smoothing	0 – 7	1	Surface smoothing passes.
Scale	0.1 – 10	1.0	Uniform scale applied to the exported model.

Model View — View

Shading presets 1 PBR · 2 Matcap · 3 Curvature · 4 Normal (number keys). Right mouse orbits, middle mouse zooms.

Actions

Control	Range / values	Default	What it does
Export STL	—	—	Computes the final mesh on the server (`/digitized/export-stl`) and downloads it; the status line reports the triangle count.
Send to MillX	—	—	Stores the STL on the server and opens MillX with it already loaded.

Tips & tricks — Digitized Data to 3D

Enter the real stylus diameter: with a round tip the raw points lie one radius above the true surface, and the compensation only works if the value is right.
Start with Reduction 3 and Smoothing 1. Raise Smoothing only to kill probe noise (“stairs”), because every pass also rounds real edges.
Look at the model in 3 Curvature shading to spot scan artifacts — they show as sharp dark lines.
Use Scale for unit fixes (×25.4 for data captured in inches) rather than scaling later in CAM.
Prefer Send to MillX over download + re-upload: the mesh is already on the server and Calculate starts immediately.

Troubleshooting

“Please upload a supported file format”.

Only .nc, .g00, .dig and .pun are accepted. Export your digitizer data in one of these formats.

The surface is inverted or mirrored.

Check the axis convention of the digitizer. Mirroring can be corrected later in MillX by rotating the view, or in your CAD before re-uploading.

Works well with

Tools that chain with Digitized Data to 3D — see the workflows.