# Unable to open the saved stl or vtk centerline extraction in other modelling software

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/unable-to-open-the-saved-stl-or-vtk-centerline-extraction-in-other-modelling-software/29372>\
**Category:** Support\
**Tags:** centerlines\
**Created:** [May 9, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/unable-to-open-the-saved-stl-or-vtk-centerline-extraction-in-other-modelling-software/29372 "2023-05-09T09:03:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yvonne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3be4f8/32.png) [@Yvonne](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/Yvonne)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/unable-to-open-the-saved-stl-or-vtk-centerline-extraction-in-other-modelling-software/29372/1 "2023-05-09T09:03:27Z")

</div>

Hi

I’m trying to export the vessel center line and open file in Solidworks and Cura in order to 3D print the structure. However, all of the 3D modelling software showed that the file is corrupted.

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/2/d/2d1f31197f36c4791e36543f94c8e0a452c05542.png)

Can anyone suggest a possible solution? Thanks in advance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2023, 4:23am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/unable-to-open-the-saved-stl-or-vtk-centerline-extraction-in-other-modelling-software/29372/2 "2023-05-10T04:23:49Z")

</div>

The error message indicates that you attempted to save a centerline model (a polyline) into STL format. STL file can only store triangles, so the generated file is empty. You can export the segmentation to a surface mesh and save that, or convert the segmentation to a volumetric mesh (using SegmentMesher extension) and load that into your CAD software.

Usually CAD software, such as Solidworks and Cura cannot deal with complex meshes coming from medical images. You may need to simplify the model to have less than 10k points (you can do that using Surface Toolbox module’s Uniform remesh option) before saving it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yvonne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3be4f8/32.png) [@Yvonne](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/Yvonne)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/unable-to-open-the-saved-stl-or-vtk-centerline-extraction-in-other-modelling-software/29372/3 "2023-05-10T22:52:56Z")

</div>

Hi Andras,

Thank you a million times!