Absolute beginner here. I’m having some trouble with making my model solid. I’ve found a couple
problems that might be preventing it from being solid, but i’m not experienced enough to know how to fix them. I’ll attach my model here. SketchUp
You need to actually share the file and not a link to look at it in the viewer.
There’s at least one missing face at the bottom of the window here and likely there are internal faces. Maybe more issues, too.
I’ve tried to close that face off but it wont let me.
If you’d share the.skp file I would be able to help you.
Tower Base.skp (173.2 KB)
Thanks 
So there’s a lot of problems preventing this from being a solid.
As for the missing face, drawing a diagonal between corners will fill the hole with two triangular faces. This is because the four points don’t lie in a plane.
There are many internal faces at corners due to the way you modeled this. With X-ray style selected you can see the internal face here.
Erasing the edge across the top of the wall removes the face as I’ve done, below.
Are you planning to 3D print this as flat panels and glue them together? If so, you need to make the panels as separate solid components. As it is now in your model it’s one big lump of geometry.
In order to be considered solid all of the edges in the group or component must be shared by exactly two faces. So no stray edges (zero faces), no holes in the volume (one face), and no internal faces (three or more faces). The edge I erased that the top of the wall is shared by three faces.
Ive just found another gap that i cant close off.
And yes i was planning to 3d print it but as one whole floor, then print 15 and stack them. Though if its a better idea to print them as panels i can do that.
Maybe you need to draw in a diagonal to get to triangular faces.
I don’t know. If you print the entire thing as a single object you’ll need to add a bunch of support for the headers over the windows and doors which you’ll then have to remove and clean up. Might also end up with a lot of warping because the walls are so thin. Fewer places that need supporting if you print them laying down flat and if you get bed adhesion right they should remain pretty flat.
2 Likes
Unless you are printing very large, you will need to exaggerate certain aspects of the model. As @DaveR called out, the wall widths are not specially important to beef up. I would recommend printing them at least 3x your wall width in your slicer (total wall width = nozzle size x number of layers).
Details like the panel on the outside of the wall would need to be exaggerated too.
1 Like
Thanks! I just have one more question. What is stopping this object from being solid? Ill link the model here
F.skp (186.3 KB)
I’ve erased that part and its still saying its not solid for some reason
Share the latest version. Did you get rid of the internal face and the stray edges?
F (1).skp (74.6 KB)
So no, you didn’t remove the stray edges or the external face.
I realize this is really a hobby for you but, if your time has any value at all, it would be worth upgradng to SketchUp Go so you would have Solid Inspector available to help you identify the things that are preventing your object. from being solids.
This is fixed.
F (1) solid.skp (92.2 KB)
1 Like
Thank you! I will see about getting sketchup go because i am really interested in this hobby.
Ive just got sketchup go, how do i use the solid inspector?
Select the object and click on the Solid Inspector button.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.