Installing 3D Mesh Tools and 3D Mesh Compare
3D Mesh Tools and 3D Mesh Compare are installed together — one download, one set of libraries. They are small Python programs, so you'll need Python and five free libraries. The source code is on GitHub.
3D Mesh Tools and 3D Mesh Compare are small Python programs that share the same libraries. You'll need Python and five free libraries.
1. Install Python
If you don't already have it, download Python 3.10 or newer from python.org.
On Windows, tick "Add python.exe to PATH" on the first screen of the installer.
2. Install the libraries
Open a terminal (on Windows, Command Prompt or PowerShell; on macOS, Terminal) and run:
python -m pip install numpy scipy pyvista pyvistaqt pyside6
On macOS and some Linux systems the command is python3 rather than python:
python3 -m pip install numpy scipy pyvista pyvistaqt pyside6
This downloads a few hundred megabytes (mostly the VTK 3D engine and the Qt interface toolkit), so it may take a minute or two.
3. Optional: MeshLab, for clean file-size reduction
3D Mesh Tools' built-in reduction is fast, but on dense scans it can leave a few tiny holes and broken edges (slicers usually repair these). For a clean result that keeps the mesh intact, also install MeshLab's Python package — about 280 MB:
python -m pip install pymeshlab
3D Mesh Tools uses it automatically when it's installed. It is only used for file-size reduction in 3D Mesh Tools; 3D Mesh Compare doesn't need it.
4. Download
Download the zip (or clone the repository with git) and unzip it somewhere convenient, such as your Documents folder. Both programs are in the one download. Keep the files together: 3dmeshtools.py, 3dmeshcompare.py and the meshtools3d folder next to them.
Running the programs
In a terminal, change to the unzipped folder, then run whichever you need:
python 3dmeshtools.py
python 3dmeshcompare.py
On macOS and some Linux systems, use python3 instead of python. See the guides for 3D Mesh Tools and 3D Mesh Compare for what happens next.
Troubleshooting
The window flashes open and closes immediately. Run it from a terminal instead of double-clicking, so you can read the error. In most cases a library is missing.
"No module named numpy" (or pyvista, pyvistaqt, qtpy).
The libraries were installed for a different copy of Python. Run the install command using the same python you use to start the program:
python -m pip install numpy scipy pyvista pyvistaqt pyside6
"Can't find the 'meshtools3d' folder".
3dmeshtools.py and 3dmeshcompare.py both need the meshtools3d folder from the zip next to them. Unzip the whole download rather than copying out just the one file.
On Linux: "Could not load the Qt platform plugin xcb".
Install the missing system library, e.g. on Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0.
Source code
The source is at github.com/madjalapeno/3dmeshtools. 3D Mesh Tools is built with PyVista, VTK, Qt and NumPy, with optional mesh reduction by MeshLab (pymeshlab).