Hello,
I want to make an object to print.
Therefore I downloaded a nice acanthus leaf, which I bended around a curve, so that it fits around a round candle.
I tried several ways to bend, but every time my object gets a lot of holes in it.
Does someone know how to get an object bend without making little holes?
Thanx in advance!
Did you try the shape bender plugin? You did not mention how you bent the leaf.
Have you increased the scale before bending?
I first used the shape bender plugin. Because I got little holes in the object I searched for another plugin.
Then I found the FredoScale Radial Bending. With both plugins I get little holes.
I increased the scale with 1000, before bending.
I’ll try to upload the model before and after bending.
In the stl files the leaf is still little, here you can see the leaf which is 1000 times bigger. (enlarged before bending)
The result is the same.3. leaf - benden two times - 1000x enlarged.stl (1.3 MB)
Not much point giving us the faulty .stl
Can you give us the .skp before you bent it.
What radius do you want? How tall is it supposed to be?
Box is right. The STL is full of garbage. I spent some time fixing it to make it usable.
I scaled up by a factor of 1000, used CleanUp3 to get rid of the unneeded edges and I replaced the back with a single face. Then Solid Inspector2 to identify any unneeded faces and holes to make sure the component was solid. Finally, Shape Bender made the bent version.
Here’s the stl. It is supposed to fall around the candle. Leaf - 1000x enlarged - still flat.skp (1.9 MB)
That looks really nice Dave!
Thanx a lot for the effort, and tips!
I’m trying to do the same here.
Worked fine with CleanUp3, buth now I have trouble with replacing the back with a single face. The back isn’t exactly flat. May I ask how you do that? Sorry, beginner here 
I drew a large rectangle placed slightly in front of the back and used Intersect Faces. It means the thing is slightly thinner but not enough to be noticeable.
Hi there, it look a while, but thanx to your support I bended my leave just the way I wanted. Thanx again! 
Now I have my leave bended around a part of a candle, which I want to make printable.
I used CleanUp3 and Solid Inspector 2, but came to this point.
Solid Inspector 2 gives the next text:
Nested instances will be exported correctly to STL file format by the Trimble SketchUp STL exporter, but SketchUp’s Solid Tools and Solid Inspector2 doesn’t treat nested instances as a solid.
I tried to use Intersect Faces, but then SketchUp Pro 2017 stops working.
I also tried Outer Shell, but this doens’t work here also.
Can anybody gives me advice how to make this object suitable for 3D printing?
Greetz Kaelyn_Leaf - 1000x enlarged - bended.skp (1.4 MB)
