OK to print?

SketchUpNoobie · 11 Jan 2013, 02:34

Would anyone with any experience in 3D printing be able to take a quick look at this model and let me know if it will be alright to print? I am planning on printing with Sculpteo and just wanted to make sure everything turns out all right.

Are the letters on the top going to be a problem? If so, I can remove them. Everything else I believe is above the 1mm minimum wall thickness. I'm just not sure about the faces, "solidness", etc. The model was not designed with 3D printing in mind so I'm just not sure.

I really have no experience with something like this so any help would be awesome!

P.S. I am printing with Sculpteo's keychain-maker tool which offers a free plastic model with the cost of shipping (6 USD). I am planning on using it as an example of 3D modeling in a speech. It doesn't need to hold up too well, but I hope it does.

2x4 Lego at standard Duplo size.

cotty · 11 Jan 2013, 06:31

Your model have to be solid (e.g. "solid group" in the entity info window) and is not. Try to use some tools to find or to solve the problems like

SolidSolver (TIG)
Solid inspector (thomthom)
Manifold (TIG)
...

d12dozr · 11 Jan 2013, 13:47

I'd remove the letters or place them somewhere else with more room and make them bigger. After you do that, use Outer Shell (Tools > Outer Shell) to join any solid components together into one single solid.

SketchUpNoobie · 11 Jan 2013, 18:22

Thanks for the tips guys!

How does this look?

lego_duplo_for_print.skp

d12dozr · 11 Jan 2013, 18:47

Looks good! That would work just fine.

If you want, you could also deboss lettering from the side to make things more interesting, like the attachment. Just make sure each part of the letter is ~1mm thick and just as deep. (also scale up to perform the operation...you can see missing faces in this quick example)

cotty · 11 Jan 2013, 18:58

@d12dozr said:

After you do that, use Outer Shell (Tools > Outer Shell) to join any solid components together into one single solid.

I've thought that this function is a PRO feature and searched in the online help...

English

German

After this, I searched it in SketchUp an it is there in both free versions!?

d12dozr · 11 Jan 2013, 19:42

@cotty said:

I've thought that this function is a PRO feature and searched in the online help...
After this, I searched it in SketchUp an it is there in both free versions!?

Yep, its in the free version too. It was introduced with the Solid Tools, the rest of which are PRO only, but Outer Shell is available to everybody.

SketchUpNoobie · 11 Jan 2013, 21:02

Alright, cool! And I think I'll try some lettering on the side, too. Thanks for the suggestion.

@d12dozr said:

Yep, its in the free version too. It was introduced with the Solid Tools, the rest of which are PRO only, but Outer Shell is available to everybody.

I also thought this was pro only! Awesome!