Learning Forum

[Adam Callanan]

I created this model in Blender (image below) and imported the .stl files into Lumerical in two parts in order to properly assign them different materials. The first being the big black spheres and the other being the white surface "blobs." The sphere .stl file imports into the simulation fine, but I get a "Unable to construct planar solid from source data. Please verify the data" error message for the surface .stl file and I can't find any information on how to resolve this error.

I build my model in Blender because I'm trying to simulate a real SERS substrate. The general process is that I map a black and white image of the real substrate onto spheres and then extrude the white parts.

What I've tried so far to fix the surface component model:

• Giving it a small additional thickness, in case some parts of it happened to be 2D.
• Reducing the file size.
• Ensuring that none of the "blobs" were hollow by using Blender's "fill mesh holes" tool.

But none of those have worked so I'm at a loss on how to fix this problem now. Any ideas and help would be appreciated.

[Guilin Sun]

This is an interesting issue. It seems you used the "Blender" software to create this image. I am not sure if it has any difference in data format from Solidworks. You may try the following:

1: simulate each of the import objects and see if meshing is correct.

2: if the meshing is correct, please change the default mesh order for the "blobs" and check if meshing is ok.

You may try Solidwork if it fails again.