Flat face is divided into segments no matter what I do

[lord_nimon]

RallymanGT_Token_6.skp (71.8 KB)

This is an STL that I imported into Sketchup Make 2017 and edited. The model looks fine with one weird exception.

On one side of the object, if you select the area around the “8”, it is selected as one flat surface. That’s what I expect.

If you flip it over and try to select the area around the other “8”, it’s divided into four oddly shaped areas. I’ve tried everything I can think of, and I cannot merge the four areas into one flat surface.

I’m sure this object will print fine, but I really want to understand how it got messed up like this, and how to fix it.

[Box]

If you turn on hidden geometry you can see the edges, in this case you can just erase them.

[Anssi]

The STL file format always consists of triangles. When you import it into SketchUp and the feature is enabled, SketchUp tries to remove the triangulation, but the process is not always perfect.

[lord_nimon]

I even tried copying/pasting the “good” side over the “bad” side, and it still had those divisions. So I don’t think it’s an STL import error.

Anyway, erasing the hidden edges worked. Thanks!

[DaveR]

On thing to note is that the divided face isn’t vertical. Here I’ve scaled the model up by 1000 to make it more evident. Note the Y-values. They all ought to be 0.000000.

For something as simple as this is, I think you’d have been better off modeling it from scratch in SketchUp than importing the .stl.

[lord_nimon]

How do I display the coordinates of all those points, like you did?

[DaveR]

Use the native text tool and click on the endpoints or intersections.

[DaveR]

I redrew the object from scratch. Some dimensions seemed kind of odd so I rounded them.
RallymanGT_Token_6.skp (159.1 KB)

[lord_nimon]

Wow, you are way faster at this than I am. Thanks!

I see what you mean about the Y-values. Is there a way to fix this? That is, some way to move the point along the Y-axis only until it snaps to the surface? Or perhaps manually specify the Y-value for a given point?

[DaveR]

@lord_nimon

Wow, you are way faster at this than I am.

Comes from practice I guess.

@lord_nimon

Is there a way to fix this? That is, some way to move the point along the Y-axis only until it snaps to the surface?

You can move endpoints but there are a lot of them in your model to move. Seems to me that modeling the thing correctly is a better investment of your time than trying to fix something someone else screwed up.

@lord_nimon

Or perhaps manually specify the Y-value for a given point?

You can move each point to a specific coordinate if you want. In this case, assuming that you want all the X and Z values to remain the same and set only Y to zero, you can start the move and then type [,0,] The square brackets indicate these are absolute coordinates and by not typing the X and Z values, they remain unchanged. Of course do you even know if the X and Z values are correct?