And logged SketchUp bug internally: SU-38312
As TT has replied, your specific problem seems to be from a bug in the stl exporter, so my speculation may have been wrong.
But you should deal with reversed faces in any case, as they are known to cause problems when apps try to process a file exported from such a model. For example, most renderers ignore back sides of faces. Also a component with any back sides facing outward is not considered a solid in SketchUp and may be rejected by 3D printers (the convention is that front sides represent the outside and back sides the inside of a “solid manifold”).
The best practice, of course, is to avoid reversed faces while building the model. Use an obnoxious color like I did for the back side of the default material, and work in monochrome mode while drawing. That will cause reversals (and holes) to jump out visually. Only apply textures after the model is completed.
The basic way to fix reversed faces is to select them, right-click, and choose “Reverse faces”. Obviously, when a model is as far along as yours, this process can be tedious!
Depending on the structure of the model, you can often select a correct (front side out) face, right-click, and choose “Orient Faces”. That will cause SketchUp to recursively follow across all edges to adjacent faces and make their front sides consistent across the edge. But be warned that some kinds of structures can confuse this logic and actually create a bigger suite of reversals. Be ready to hit the undo button if this occurs!
There are extensions such as SolidInspector 2 that will find reversed faces and often will be able to fix them - provided they are in a single group or component. A group or component with additional groups or components nested in it is never considered a solid by SketchUp, though it will usually export as stl and may be accepted by some 3D printers. Your model has a lot of nesting, and this may affect it.
Once you have all faces oriented correctly, you may have to reapply materials, since they likely were originally applied to the back sides.
It’s a bug in SketchUp. The exporter was given a face that would yield no points for its tesselated mesh. The exporter assumed that all faces would yield at least three points.
I got a workaround for that - ignoring the weird face. I’ll try to get it published soon.
Yes. For 3d printing you want a single object (group or component with no sub-components). And the entire object should be a solid. Otherwise you are most likely to get junk out of the slicer.
Just pushed version 2.2 that should work around this particular issue with the model.
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Thank you all! The export from SketchUp worked and Import to Meshmixer worked. Re-scaling for my print job. I will check with my printer team and then go from there!
Nice! What printer and material did you use there?
FlashForge Creator Pro 3D Printer, PLA (Poly-lactic Acid) filament.
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