Hi, I’ve designed a part to be 3d printed.
It is quite a detailed mechanical part with curved surfaces with non constant curves. Sketchup draws these as a series of straight faces and when I print they are not smooth. Any thoughts about how I can smooth the file for smoother prints (variable layer height doesn’t solve the issue), please?
Without seeing your model we can only guess.
But it very much depends how you made your model, if made with groups and components you may be able to simply adjust them to make them more segmented, but if all raw geometry you will have problems with that.
The best option is to model from the start with enough segments to make your models smooth. Usually segmentation doesn’t lead to bloated files for 3d printing as they are generally just one object, not whole house and landscape. But still no point going overboard, 96 segments is usually more than enough.
Model with units set to m and treat mm as m, this will avoid tiny face issues and when exported to stl will be read as mm by your printer.
SketchUp is a polygon modeller, so everything is made of straight edges.
The simple answer is use more edges , the other more complicated tool that creates mathematically curved surfaces
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Note that export for 3D printing usually goes via a .stl file, which represents everything using triangles. There are no true curves in stl. So, as @Box has pointed out, you need to increase the level of detail in your model. And to avoid issues with short edges/small faces you should model in meters. .stl does not convey units, so you can automatically get scaling by 1/1000 if you export meters from SketchUp and import the stl file as mm in your slicer.
That’s a very good point! Also 3D printers are umcretes using linear motion; so even a mathematically perfect curve is actually a piecewise approximation
Pay close attention to this advice. It’s important.
Here’s an example where I followed Box’s advice. Modeled in meters but printed in millimeters.The large rounded part started from a cylinder with 96 sides.
Here’s a picture of the draft model I made to check the angle. The surface doesn’t show any of the facetting that you are seeing in your model.
Thank you to everyone that responded. I am doing everything suggested, but still no joy with this model - I may have to start from scratch.
Share the .skp file so we can see what you’ve got.
