I’m struggling with this
everything i draw is full of holes when i bring it in to slic3r
it looks fine in sketchup
even amending a design that did open ok in slic3r by increasing the thickness of a part creates a new file file full of holes and gaps in slic3r
how can i tell if its sketchup or slic3r tha’ts at fault
my pc is windows 7 and 4g RAM, is that the problem
any suggestions before I bin the whole idea and sell the printer
Garry
If you attach a model that shows these problems we should be able to diagnose what’s going on.
As Box says, a model would help us help you.
Maybe it’s a ‘size’ issue.
If your object has tiny edges these might not get processed successfully - SketchUp thinks that two points within 1/1000" are coincident and skips them !
Alternatively - your object must be a ‘manifold solid’ - so when its grouped what does Entity Info say - if the header doesn’t include the word ‘Solid’ then it’s not suitable for 3d-printing, without some fixing.
Also even it it is a solid, does it have any ‘reversed faces’ - if so fix them using the context-menu.
There are lots of posts explaining what constitutes a manifold solid, and tips on fixing them…
e.g. this one: Whats happening with this model upload to shapeways?
Do a forum search…
tipperchassis top.skp (257.0 KB)
but in slic3r it looks like this
Here, try this one.
tipperchassis topbox.skp (127.8 KB)
thanks that worked so what am I doing wrong ?
You had internal faces and reversed faces.
It should all be white on the outside and there should be no faces inside the structure.
It basically needs to be one skin surrounding an open space.
sorry dont understand
Take a cube and place another cube on top of it, there will then be one face where the two cubes join, this is an internal face and makes it not a solid.
Your model has lots of those faces.
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so how do I prevent this if I am building a structure by joining items together
is there a tutorial I should watch
thanks for your help
There are many many tutorial available, some better than others.
A good place to start is Sketchup Fundamentals.
As for the construction, you just need to be aware of what you are building and look inside to clean up extraneous faces. You can use a section pane to look inside.
Thomthom’s Solid Inspector 2 helps find and fix these issues, but you want to understand the concept of a solids before relying on extensions to fix everything.
thanks is that what you used to fix my design and is it downloaded from the 3d warehouse
I will work my way through some tutorials
From the Extension warehouse not the 3d warehouse.
thanks again that’s brilliant
next problem if someone can help
my printer is a very basic entry unit it’s a duinotech mini TL4076
everything I print is too thin ie the z movement is too small
I’ve just printed this as a test
thickness test.skp (174.5 KB)
thickness should be in mm 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5
actual results are 0.25, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 1.1, 1.5, 2.0,2.5, 3.0
so in 3.5mm I’ve lost 0.5mm
I replaced the flexible coupling between the motor and drive rod as it looked to be compressing when in use but the problem is back
any suggestions , other than to buy a better printer
currently not sure this is for me so dont want to expend too much
I was just hoping to make parts for my model railway
Just a guess.
Plastic print materials shrink as they cool.
How much shrinkage depends upon the specific type of material and the shape of the print.
The thicker or larger the print … The greater the shrinkage as it cools.
The article linked below states the following shrinkage rates. YMMV
• ABS shrinks by around 8 %
• PLA shrinks by around 2.5 %
• Nylon shrinks by around 1.7 %