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When I try to do this with an object that I've made in solidworks the mesh looks absolutely terrible, spikes, jagged edges etc. You know the deal. I have tried doings "Tris to quads" and "Limited dissolve" with various values in order to fix this mesh. However neither of those methods has worked for me.

I have tried exporting the SolidWorks model in both .wrl format and .STL format, neither of which has looked good when I use the subdivision modifier, I have also looked for a way to export the model using quads instead of SolidWork's seemingly standard setting of exporting in Triangles.

Basically my question is:

How do I modify my export settings or change my mesh in such a way that subdivision surface is possible without ruining the mesh.

OR

If there is any way to make SolidWorks export in quads exclusively

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    $\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about Solid Works $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    Dec 20, 2018 at 17:09
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    $\begingroup$ If you want to use Subdivision you need carefully planned proper topology, no amount of export settings will fix CAD models $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
    Dec 20, 2018 at 17:27

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Having worked quite a bit with SolidWorks models myself, I understand your pain. There isn't a single quick fix, but there are some things I have learned that have helped me mitigate the poor topology.

The first thing you should do is merge triangle pairs into quads: In Edit Mode, press Alt + J.

enter image description here

Next, turn on Smooth Shading and Auto Smooth:

enter image description here

I have found these two will often smooth out the appearance enough that I don't need further subdivision.

In the case of the model I used as an example, though, I spent hours and hours reworking the topology in Edit mode to get it to the quality I wanted. As @Duarte said in the comments, the best thing is just to have good topology, which SolidWorks doesn't provide.

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