Model looks good in SU, but exports badly

javelin98 · February 10, 2017, 2:57am

I have a model that seems to have no problems, such as loose shells or internal faces, but when I export it to a COLLADA file and upload it to my Shapeways store, it is riddled with errors – truncated faces, loose shells – and is unprintable. It also cannot be exported to STL, because the utility just lists dozens of errors and then stops. Since I can’t export it to STL, I can’t use MeshLab or Netfabb to analyze what the problems might be.

Here is how it looks in SU:

And here is how it looks when uploaded to Shapeways:

Any ideas? I’m stumped.

javelin98 · February 10, 2017, 2:58am

Oh, and here are the STL export errors:

SketchUp STL Exporter:
An error occured during export.

undefined method -' for nil:NilClass C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:222:in get_vertex_order’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:103:in write_face_ascii' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:98:in call’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:98:in write_face' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:76:in block in find_faces’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:73:in each' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:73:in find_faces’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:68:in export' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:337:in block in do_options’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/events.rb:82:in call' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/events.rb:82:in block in trigger_event’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/events.rb:78:in each' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/events.rb:78:in trigger_event’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/window.rb:357:in event_control_callback' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/window.rb:311:in callback_handler’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/window.rb:269:in block in add_callback' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/window.rb:203:in call’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/window.rb:203:in show_modal' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/SKUI/window.rb:203:in show’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:358:in do_options' C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:371:in main’
C:/Users/Andreas/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/sketchup-stl/exporter.rb:391:in block in <module:Exporter>' SketchUp:1:in call’

john_mcclenahan · February 10, 2017, 11:04am

Can you upload the SKP file? Either here if under 3MB, or if larger either to the 3D warehouse, or a file sharing site like Drop box.

Without that, we’d be guessing.

SketchUp3D_de · February 10, 2017, 11:06am

give ThomThoms ‘CleanUp³’ a try.

jimhami42 · February 10, 2017, 2:38pm

My copy of MeshLab will import Collada files:

javelin98 · February 11, 2017, 3:09pm

Okay, I downloaded the latest edition of Meshlab (thanks for the tip, jimhami42!) and was able to look at the COLLADA file using that. A huge number of faces just seem to have disappeared when I exported from SU to COLLADA.

I still can’t figure out why those things just vanished! So here is the file itself. I appreciate any insights!

Maxadon for upload.zip (2.4 MB)

ChrisDizon · February 11, 2017, 4:26pm

A few ideas…

Upload the model to the 3dwh and use the Materialize service to generate the STL. See if this STL is better
You can export the model as an obj. Bring the obj into Meshlab from which you can export the mesh out as STL. The obj looks great in Meshlab

1852×1198 52.6 KB

CD

javelin98 · February 11, 2017, 7:07pm

Any idea how long it takes for Materialize to render the STL file? I uploaded this to the Warehouse a couple hours ago and have been waiting, but the STL link is greyed out and has a little hourglass next to it.

jimhami42 · February 15, 2017, 2:18am

I downloaded your model and couldn’t get it to export properly. However, once I scaled it up by 10x, both Collada and STL exports seems to work as they should.

Meshlab import of Collada file:

MakerBot import of STL file:

The geometry has a lot of intersections that keep it from being a SketchUp solid … however, Slic3r had no trouble repairing the problems and making it manifold:

I also discovered that Slic3r will fix the STL file and make it into an OBJ file.