I’ve been struggling with this all morning and I don’t know what’s different this time. I’ve made several parts like this, but somehow, when I try to extrude this piece, it creates an inconsistency that leads to wonky geometry. I’ve remade this part from scratch at least twice now but get the same error.
I have this part. It’s solid, no odd geometry, and it’s 50mm tall. I’ve measured every single point and that’s exactly the height it’s supposed to be.
I’ve undone the extrusion and the line, so it’s right at the starting point. I’ve gone over the shape and can’t find any breaks in the geometry or any wonky faces that might be causing this. It’s only when I make a line across it and try to extrude it that I get this weird measurement. As I’ve said, I’ve done this hundreds of times before but this has been an absolute pain all morning. Thanks in advance.
Okay, I’ve made this part from scratch twice, starting with a rectangle and then cutting away the curves. It still ends up doing the same thing. I don’t understand how it’s not flat.
I would suggest that you set the model units to meters and model these things as if millimeters are meters. That will help you improve the precision in your modeling and allow you to create smoother curved surfaces while avoiding potential holes that prevent the objects from being manifold.
I’m technically already doing something like that. I’m working in 10x scale (it’s printing out to 5mm tall instead of 50). It’s how I’ve always worked. I don’t understand how this plane isn’t flat and how it’s giving me two different heights when I extrude it.
I don’t know… but you are doing something where it is causing things to not be flat. I did not check if you have length snapping turned on. If so turn it off.
Also, this file should be less than a Mb. Is there a reason you are using the environment style to model?
I don’t know what I could be doing to create an uneven surface. Like I said, I remade this base from scratch and the problem persists. I even made a similar shape and starting making a section to extrude, and that’s perfectly fine.
Did you make the line across the top of the cutout in the middle to extrude that section? That’s when I get the discrepancy. Every measurement up until that point is consistent, regardless of scale.
I don’t scale before exporting anyway. I do the scaling in the slicer. I’m sorry if I’m coming across as rude, but this is absolutely infuriating. I’ve never had this problem before and I’ve been working this way for years.
I’ve even scaled up another 10X (500mm) and I’m having the same issue. No matter what, this plane isn’t staying flat. I even tried editing the file in the browser app and have the same issue. I updated SketchUp to the newest version and even restarted my workstation. No matter how I model this part, it’s just not staying consistent.
I’m going to try this at home on my Mac. Until then, I’m just going to start over with a new file from scratch.
Thank you for your time. I know it’s valuable and I appreciate that you take the time to help others in these forums.
That’s it. That’s the issue. I don’t know why I couldn’t make the plane flat. It’s got to do with the part it’s supposed to mate with. That’s where the original error is. Thank you.
Printing had nothing to do with the issue. The issue was with the geometry. Scaling didn’t make a difference to the geometry and I tried it at two different scales.
And I’ve modeled every single thing I’ve 3D printed at a scale of 10X and then scaled it back down in the slicer. I’ve done that ever since I started using SketchUp and I’ve had no issues arise from it. It’s worked just fine. So, I don’t really see what treating millimeters as meters is supposed to achieve when it wasn’t the issue at the start. If the issue was there at 10X and 100X scaling in the app, then how I use my slicer isn’t the problem.
I don’t see how this discussion can move forward without one of us getting needlessly upset. I’m not about to argue 3D printing expertise with you when it’s been my job for over 10 years and my results speak for themselves. In the end, the issue was something else entirely, nothing to do with scaling, and nothing to do with how I use my slicer.
As far as I can gather, the mistake was when I built up the first piece. It didn’t have a solid face for me to extrude downward, so I used lines to build it up that way. I guess I didn’t snap fully down to zero on the z axis. I did consider the circles because it seemed like when I drew the line segment from the circle to the edge, that’s when I’d get the discrepancy. Circles have done odd things in my models before; I should use more Boolean operations. Anyway, I’ll give Eneroth Flatten To Plane a look. Thanks for the tip.
Convert units.
Move a decimal point.