smoothing out .stl files?

[fktt]

I'm guessing that what you mean with smoothing is the 'set smooth' property?

If so, those .stl files might be imported either as multiple objects(even if it is supposed to be one)
or just some vertices have been split(so the object isn't 'watertight' anymore).

So to have it all be one mesh again, select all the objects and hit alt+J
(and click on the prompt that appears under the cursor),
after witch you need to enter edit mode and remove doubles.
(remove doubles can either be accessed from the W-Key menu in view-port,
or button can be found amongst the editing buttons)

Note that the object also might have been imported either extremely large or small,
so either playing with the object scale or the threshold value(witch can be found among the editing buttons) may be needed.

[RoamingGnome]

I am not trying to combine multiple STL files, I'm just dealing with a file that's heavily triangulated. I'd like to smooth out the single model.
How do you make blender overwrite the geometry when in edit mode?

does that make sense?

[RedSquirrel]

Will this help? In edit mode select all the vertices ("A" button on your keyboard) the press alt+J which will convert triangles to quads.

[FreakyDude]

imported stl's ussually have a lot of double vertices. As if every single triangle is a small seperate element. Just hit A to select everything and hit W>5(remove doubles). then ctrl+n just to be safe and calculate the face normals outside.
Either try your luck by selecting everything and hit alt+j to auto-triangulate the entire model at once, or select your "loops" (series of tris than when converted, will be a quad loop/ring) manually and hit alt+j to convert loop by loop at a time. (hope that makes sense)
And there you have it. You can then set the entire model as smooth or shaded as you like. You can combine it with an edgesplit modifier and/or mark edges as sharp to get sharp creases where you need them.

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