• Login
sketchucation logo sketchucation
  • Login
πŸ”Œ Quick Selection | Try Didier Bur's reworked classic extension that supercharges selections in SketchUp Download

Solid 3D Objects from SketchUp.

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved SketchUp Discussions
sketchup
10 Posts 8 Posters 3.1k Views 8 Watching
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • T Offline
    TheMophead
    last edited by 12 Oct 2012, 14:11

    Hi guys, I'm new here so don't kick my a*s if I'm posting in the wrong section.

    I've been developing a product for the past few days and I'm going to model it on a 3D Printer. However, SketchUp produces hollow drawings and if I was to produce this on a 3D printer, it would most proably fall apart due to it being hollow.

    I was wondering if there is any setting at all that allows me to change weather or not SketchUp uses a hollow setting or an entirely solid object setting.

    Any help would be appreciated!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • D Offline
      Dave R
      last edited by 12 Oct 2012, 15:38

      SketchUp is a surface modeller. It's the wrong tool if you need real solids. That said, there's a lot of 3D printing being down from SketchUp models and they don't fall apart. Do some searching on the forums for 3D printing. I think you'll find plenty of examples of SketchUp being used for that.

      Etaoin Shrdlu

      %

      (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

      G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

      M30

      %

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • R Offline
        Rich O Brien Moderator
        last edited by 12 Oct 2012, 16:02

        The printer should allow you to dictate the interior.

        From having it completely made of plastic (solid) to having the innards honeycombed in various fashions

        Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • C Offline
          Chris Fullmer
          last edited by 12 Oct 2012, 16:05

          Are there 3d printers that read .skp format now? Or will he still have to export to .stl?

          Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
          All my Plugins I've written

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • R Offline
            Rich O Brien Moderator
            last edited by 12 Oct 2012, 16:14

            @chris fullmer said:

            Are there 3d printers that read .skp format now? Or will he still have to export to .stl?

            I don't know of any printers that directly deal with .skp but I do know iMaterialise can accept .skp format and convert.

            My own printer requires .stl but when I go to print it then asks 'How thick do you want the walls?' 'what kind of construction would you like internally?' or' Will it be solid?'

            At this stage I turn it off as talking printers are annoying.

            Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • C Offline
              cotty
              last edited by 12 Oct 2012, 18:06

              I had a similar problem and TIG wrote the honeycomber plugin as an answer, perhaps it will help you too?

              my SketchUp gallery

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • T Offline
                thomthom
                last edited by 13 Oct 2012, 09:11

                You normally export to STL - then the 3d printer. And as long as you model the mesh as a solid in SU (it says Solid when you select the group/component in Entity Info) you should be good. You just need to make sure that all edges in the mesh are connected to two faces. Any internal faces needs to be removed.

                I've printed stuff from SketchUp models. Example:
                https://plus.google.com/photos/103450081381233788032/albums/5754245713469640065

                https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8uzkqpEAPfA/T9sv_fQ9W1I/AAAAAAAABWs/p5dSGHFq2wQ/w435-h598-p-k/Peon.jpg

                Thomas Thomassen β€” SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • K Offline
                  kmead
                  last edited by 14 Oct 2012, 14:05

                  We have a Makerbot and several high end 3D printers at work and have no issue with printing exported STL files from SU. In the case of the Makerbot the software gives you plenty of choices of how you want to print the part as do our high end systems.

                  You can download the Makerbot software for free to check out the features.

                  Karl

                  I created Dilbertville, sorry about that...

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • T Offline
                    TheMophead
                    last edited by 14 Oct 2012, 15:41

                    Hi guys sorry for the late response, had some network problems.

                    We're using a ZPrinter 250 which uses an application called ZPrint to process the Models. We've been using .stl's to import drawings but that was importing them from Solidworks which I don't have a license for.

                    I found a plugin that allowed me to convert the .skp file to .stl and then import it into ZPrint which I will try out tomorrow if I have time. It's a possibility that ZPrint will alow me to dictate the interior of the model because previous models where developed entirely solid, and to save materials they where created with small Columns automatically (They where originally designed entirely hollow).

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • S Offline
                      sketch3d.de
                      last edited by 15 Oct 2012, 11:56

                      Almost all 3D printing machines use STL as their input files. The software that coverts the STL and drives the machines (mostly by G-code) is almost always proprietary and is supplied by the machine vendor.

                      The meshes of complex STL files often do have flaws which need to be repaired, for this there is netfabb which is free for the basic program.

                      hth,
                      Norbert

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • 1 / 1
                      1 / 1
                      • First post
                        1/10
                        Last post
                      Buy SketchPlus
                      Buy SUbD
                      Buy WrapR
                      Buy eBook
                      Buy Modelur
                      Buy Vertex Tools
                      Buy SketchCuisine
                      Buy FormFonts

                      Advertisement