Export STL file issues (Pro Subscription, not web edition)

SketchUp Pro
#1

I am having serious problems exporting STL files in Sketchup Pro 2021. (The Pro version for Mac, not the online web version.)

The attached model illustrates the problems reliably.

  1. The “Export Only Selected” option is erratic on whether it works or not. Sometimes it will work, often it will not. The attached model illustrates this. When you open the model and then choose File + Export + 3D Model + STL + Options and choose the “Export only current selection”…

a) If nothing is selected then the entire model is exported, which is expected.

b) If you Select All (Command-A on a Mac) and then you export you will get nothing.

Of course, this is a trivial model that was extracted from a much larger model to make illustrating the problem easier.

  1. The Z offsets are incorrect sometimes, for some exports. Certain exports have the Z-Offset incorrect. I may export several portions of a large model, one at a time. In Sketchup 2020 the pieces would all import together correctly, But now in SU 2021 some of the imported pieces will have an incorrect Z-Offset and thus be in the wrong position.
  1. I have submitted these to SU Technical Support several times with several examples but I never hear back from them. Do they even offer technical support any more? Really, I have four outstanding tickets submitted over the past two weeks and have heard nada from them.

Is STL export of selected objects just entirely broken? And, how is it possible for such an important feature to just be broken for so long and nobody seems to be all that concerned with fixing it?

Export Test.skp.zip (85.9 KB)

Beginner 3D printing
#2

Yes, I believe this is currently the case. We have been seeing reports of this since the latest 2021 update. It appears to be not working for other export formats as well, .obj for instance shows the same behavior. Of course I do not work for Trimble and cannot speak for them but I will say I have seen bigger bugs go for much longer. The current work around is to copy paste each part into a fresh file and export from there without using export selected. A faster (more dangerous?) method is to select all, unselect the part you want to export, cut everything to the clipboard leaving only 1 part, export .stl, then paste in place to restore the model.

The Z height problem may or may not be related to this. I don’t see a lid in the model you posted, only the one part so nothing to test with.

#3

It being broken is a recent thing. The part that is significant is that the selection includes items that are not on the active tag. You could get your example to export ok if you either moved the raw geometry to the Untagged tag, or if you made Case - Ends be the active tag for a moment. I think the problem came about as a side effect of the work done on Tag Folders. The same file will export fine in SketchUp 2020.

I was the person who logged the bug report about that. It’s SU-47907 in our system. That was around the time that the work for 2021.0.1 was being done, and as there are easy work arounds to the problem, it seems it wasn’t as important as the crashing issues that needed to be fixed. I don’t know when there will be an update that has the problem fixed. For now, if you need to export only a part of the model, make sure the selected items are on the active tag.

With regard to whether there is any tech support, yes there is, but they don’t have me to help anymore. From four weeks ago I’ve been working on the QA team, which will let me be more involved in tracking down these sorts of issues. That has left my support colleagues with more cases to handle than before, and replies may be taking longer than usual. Also, I think that your last support case went to customer service, they then sent it to my colleagues. When my colleagues see it they will reply to say that it’s a known issue, and will most likely make similar suggestions about how to work around the problem.

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