Export point data

If you output an ASCII .stl file, rather than the default BINARY format, you get a text file that contains a series of facets. Many many facets. Each facet is a simple triangle, defined by a facet normal vector and the vertex points, like this:

 facet normal 6.947650e-01 1.861641e-01 -6.947262e-01
 outer loop
 vertex 9.843750e-01 4.725000e-02 -8.183940e-02
 vertex 1.000000e+00 3.942609e-02 -6.831009e-02
 vertex 1.000000e+00 -4.829701e-18 -7.887500e-02
 endloop
 endfacet

If it were me looking for all the points on the exterior of the object, I'd use a good text editor (Emacs for me) to edit that file and reduce it to just a list of points. A keyboard macro would work perfectly, given the repetitive format of the file.

The next "problem" you'll have to address is eliminating all the duplicate points. If the solid is manifold (fully encloses a volume), multiple facet triangles will share the same vertex, at least three times, maybe more. That particular task might mean using Excel, or maybe there's a better tool someone can recommend.

Ok, I have one idea, but it's not fully automated. Maybe it can get you part way. You can use the measure tool and click on each of the points (hold down ctrl). Then click the + sign in the measure: Summary window, and + again to get the results. You can select all the results and copy them, or click the "i" icon and then save them as a text file.

Unfortunately, this still requires you to manually select all the points. If you manage to get a datum point at each intersection point, you can collect them all into the measure tool by searching, but trying it out myself didn't let me search for the intersection points directly, and I don't know of a way to automate generating these points. You could probably do it with WebLink or JLink: Search for each line in the curve, then select each end point of that curve. Perhaps CreoSon can do it, too?