Integration
Using a VeX model in exocad
A VeX exports as a binary STL and loads into exocad like any other mesh. The parts worth knowing about are the two ways a model can look broken after import — and why the model you get here is built to survive both.
Importing the model
The generated file is a binary STL in the coordinate system of the scans you supplied, so it arrives already registered against the rest of the case. Load it as an additional scan or model object and it sits where the patient’s anatomy sits — no re-alignment step.
Two ways a model looks broken — and why this one does not
Sockets that render as white holes
A root pocket is the inside of a cavity. The teeth scan it came from describes the outside of a tooth, so its surfaces face the opposite way to what a socket needs. exocad culls back faces: surfaces pointing away from the viewer are simply not drawn. A socket built from unturned tooth surfaces therefore renders as a hole in the gum, even though the geometry is there.
What makes this treacherous is that most viewers — including our own and the one on this site — draw both sides, so the model looks perfect everywhere except the one place it matters. Our root surfaces are oriented for the cavity, so they render as solid sockets in exocad.
Seams that reopen as rings around the necks
exocad also discards sliver triangles on import — degenerate, near-zero-area faces. That matters because the obvious way to close the gap between the gum edge and the root edge is to bridge it with a thin band of triangles. Those triangles are exactly the ones that get deleted, and the seam reopens as a visible ring around every tooth neck.
So the seams here are not bridged. Gum and root are joined by sharing vertices, which nothing can discard, and near-boundary crossings are snapped onto existing vertices rather than creating hair-thin triangles. The finished model has one boundary, the outer rim, with the tooth channels open as they should be.
How this differs from exocad’s own virtual extraction
exocad has a virtual extraction workflow of its own, and it is worth being clear about what it does. Working in the scan data editor, you outline the tooth and delete that region of the scan. What remains is a jaw scan with a hole where the tooth was — and that hole has to be closed before the case can continue, typically by selecting the rim and closing it, then reshaping the area with freeforming.
| Manual virtual extraction | VeX model | |
|---|---|---|
| Below the gum margin | Surface closed and reshaped by hand | The patient’s own root anatomy, from the teeth scan |
| Origin of that surface | Created in CAD; it was never in the mouth | Scanned; it was in the mouth |
| Where the cut lands | Wherever the outline was drawn | On the measured gum line |
| Consistency between cases | Depends on the technician’s judgement each time | The same rule every time |
| Time per arch | Tooth by tooth | Minutes, unattended |
Neither approach is wrong for every purpose — but they produce different things. If what you need is a record of the transmucosal anatomy the patient actually has, a closed-and-reshaped socket cannot give it to you, because that surface is a reconstruction. What a VeX model is ›
Frequently asked questions
Can I open a VeX model in exocad?
Yes. The model exports as a binary STL and loads like any other mesh, as an additional scan or a model object alongside the rest of the case.
Why do sockets sometimes appear as holes in CAD software?
Because the socket walls are the inside of a cavity, not the outside of a tooth. If their surface normals face the wrong way, software that culls back faces draws nothing there and the socket reads as a white hole. Our root surfaces are oriented for the cavity, so they render solid.
Why did a seam that looked closed reopen after import?
exocad discards sliver triangles on import. A seam sealed with hair-thin bridge triangles loses them and reopens as a ring around the tooth neck. Seams have to be closed by sharing vertices, not by bridging with slivers.
How is this different from exocad’s own virtual extraction?
exocad’s virtual extraction removes the tooth from the scan data and leaves a hole, which you then close and reshape. That fills the socket with surface that was never in the patient. A VeX keeps the real root anatomy from the teeth scan instead.
Generate a model that survives the import.
Oriented sockets, vertex-welded seams, one boundary — built for what exocad does to a mesh on the way in.
Create a VeX model ↗