PS: I’ll delete the model as soon you say so. @kelandrin
Thank you very much, I was looking at one of the links somebody posted above and boy do I have a lot to learn haha.
I tried to explode it so I could try to add one of the groups that I did have saved, but every time I exploded it, sketchup crashed. how come?
You hit the literal explode button by clicking with your left brain. You wanted the figuratively explode button, using your right brain while clicking.
(Sorry, it’s been a long week). 
kelandrin:
I have tried saving as obj,dae,ply and fixing your model and the best I have been able to date is reduce model size to 6+MB but it is still not printable. There are so many technical problems it is beyond the technical capability of SU to correct or even ID them. There are numerous duplicate, unreferenced, self intersecting faces etc you will never fix with what you have posted because SU does not have the capability to ID and fix them. For example I merged up to 100,000 plus vertices which doing parametrically in SU is not possible
You are what I called stove piped thinking you must stay on the path you are on. SU usually has several ways to model and in the long run you will find it will be quicker with better results to listen to some of the folks above and start over. You have only six items to model and once one is done correctly the rest will go quickly.
Suggestion: Slow down and hurry up.
You indicated you have dimensions of the set items so you should post info here so folks can help you.
Oh yes, it does crash ! Sigh…
Last thing I did was to group everything…Shouldn’t have don that!
Well, I managed to get the groups separated again via Outliner and will upload it to 3D-Warehouse again.
Mind you, keep all the geometry in the “head”/Knight-group un-exploded and work inside the group if you have to.
It was obviously all that geometry in the “head”/Knight-group that causes the camera-functions (zoom, pan etc.) to go crazy. (So: don’t explode the Knight-group!)
(Thought SU will still warn once in a while about problems when saving.But says it will fix. OK)
But overall; since you made this grand piece, you really should try to work from that.
Meaning: making a new and simpler geometry on top of that.
You have all the important points right there.
And remember to use components for mirroring,simpler work, smaller file size and so on.
Start with the mouth f.in., that’s one easy part. Now about 3,6 MB by itself. Should only be ~ ?
We’ll see. That’s a challenge too
Cheers
IMHO spending much time on the model is a lost cause. This t is the first step and the big problem will be to get the small issues fixed so you can print. There are so many self intersecting faces, non ref vertices , non manifold edges, co planar edges, on and on that getting to a good clean model to even think about printing is going to be a challenge.
I hope I am wrong but time will tell.
Scale down the head that is 10^6 x ( I guess here the OP does not say for sure) allows the model to act more normal.
Image textures does not contribute much to model size is based on deletion of all materials and model size report.= > size all geometry related.
Some of the 3d printers have size limits of about 45MB and 10^6 edges but it is still ok. Since the model does not include a shell it will print as a solid and the OP should get some idea on cost. Probably an escape hole should be included in the design to help with post print clean up.??
IMHO OP should not use Soap , Skin Bubble. ThomThom’s cleanup, edges tools and selection tools will help plus Fredo’s CurviLoft His tools set will help in getting the reverse faces fixed too.
Having SU report as solid is necessary but not sufficient condition to print. Commercial 3d printers have their own criteria.
The OP has school printers so issue with cost may not be a big issue but should at least be thought about.
So I have decided to start over, but how do a post just one group out of what I have so far to show you guys because I have a question about the best method to do something. How do I make 1 group separate from the model? and piil, you said after you were done with it it was 3.6 mb?
Select the group you want, copy it, open a blank model, paste the group in there and save the model.
Then attach it to your post using the 7th Icon from the left at the top of the reply window.
Or just drag the model into the reply window, or use ctrl g to get the upload dialog.
knight back slat small version.skp (13.8 KB)
I need to make this wireframe into a face. What would be the best way to go about that? other than soap and bubble
Fredo6s Curviloft.
kelandrin;
You orginal approach had a number of basic modeling approaches helping to contribute to the problems. I hope you are not going down the same path;
There is a post today discussing the pros and cons of using components vs groups which you should read. IHMO component’s have more pros which I use others think differently;
You did not use any layers originally. SU uses them for visibility control and groups / components to isolate geometry. Their use will help you while you model and you should check some of the videos ;
Since you use small in the name of the attachment in assume you plan on scaling up but that implementation was causing some problem. Components definition is invariant when you move, rotate, scale its instance. If you context click those in you knight head model you see some have options for reset scale and scale definition and others do not. Reset scale makes the component size back to how you originally drew it while scale definition will set the definition to the scaled size. Make your self simple model of say component cylinder and 2 instances of different scale and it is easy to see what happens.
I gave you tool recommendations in my Feb 17 post for some tools. On I should add is TIGs extrude tool set.
Do you have the model as a simple wire frame? If so please post
knight back slat small version_MAC1.skp (111.9 KB)
Using TIGS extrude by rail, part of his extrude tool set. A little time spend to try minimize number of edges which now stands 777
FYI on scaling:
Using simple model : two cylinders of different size and one group or component and other primitive geometry. Test with both SU8 and 2015.
Scaling using tape tool ok at 1000 but fails at 1000000. The primitive geometry ok for both but group or component did not respond as expected.
Before some asks I did not try and find break point!!!
How do you use curviloft, I cant figure it out and I cant find tig tool set. I cant open the file you posted mac because I dont have version 15. Don’t you have to pay for that? and if not, how do I transfer all of my tools from 14 to 15
Curviloft seems like it uses more lines than soap and bubble. I am probably doing it wrong
There are detailed instructions on the use of CurviLoft in its thread’s first page and related posts…
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=248195#p248195
You’ll also need LibFredo installing…
My Extrude tools are there too:
There is also Artisan [$ but a free trial…]
There’s an interesting Artisan thread here, with many examples of making simple proxies and then smoothing them into more organic shape…:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=382310#p382310
To view SCF’s post’s images etc and download the RBZs from the SketchUcation PluginStore, just join SCF - membership is free.
Whenever possible install fresh copies of plugins from their RBZ archives, using:
SketchUp’s Preferences > Extensions > Install… button
Copying plugins between versions of SketchUp is not recommended - whenever a new SketchUp version is released many plugins need to have their code updating to suit that new version…
SketchUp v2015 is free for the 30 day Pro trial, then it reverts to ‘Make’ version.
You can “save_as” in one SketchUp version down to an earlier version SKP.
It starts out as pro version and after 30 day test period it reverts automatically to free version.
I resaved as SU 2014 for you.
For any plugin you need to read author write ups. Curviloft is very good but you need to know what you are doing.
Here is link to another post that had problem similar to yours Cant Click This Model Anymoreknight back slat small version_MAC1.skp (111.9 KB)
Attached is your orginal knight head down loaded from the warehouse. It was globally decimated at a 1/100 step at a time down to 1/100000000.
The out liner was to used to select then to reset the scale of a few components and or groups which should then show show their orginal scale. They are much bigger than head model so leads me to the assertion it was not scaled up 100 mil. per the OP.
Hope this gives you enough info to finish
Can I transfer all of my tools to 2015 in an easy way?