Thousands of SolidInspector2 errors- need help solving!

[simonsencody]

Hiya!

I’ve been trying to use Solid Inspector2 to solve some issues regarding my manifold errors before I can print my model. When I open SI2 it takes roughly 20-25 minutes to load, and then it tells me I have several thousand errors. Then, it crashes.

After looking through some of the forums and such, it seems my model has too many triangles for my machine to handle.

Would someone be willing/interested in taking a look at my model and seeing what needs to be done in order to make it a true solid/manifold?

Thanks!
Cody

See attached: 5.0 Tesla Compartment.stl (9.4 MB)

Happy to share the SKP file, not sure how to share those here.

[DaveR]

How about sharing the .skp file so we can see what you are starting with? Share it the same way you added the .stl. If it’s too large a file, upload to Drop Box and share the link.

[simonsencody]

DaveR,

Thanks for the quick response and for the tip on how to share the .skp file.

Here it is! Link to Dropbox File Hope it works well- I’m not a DropBox savvy person.

[DaveR]

It worked. The file is a mess. How did you create it?

[DaveR]

I’ve scaled the model up by 1000 to hopefully get away from the tiny face problems, I’ve purged unused stuff from the model and now I am running CleanUp3 which currently indicates there’s more than 18 hours to go. I’m not going to let it run that long because I think you could model it cleanly in much less time. We’ll see what happens, though.

[slbaumgartner]

Where did you get the stl file? Many apps that work with stl are geared more toward visual representation than simplicity. They rely on dense spiderwebs to cause a triangle-based renderer to produce a nice looking image. Most GPUs are optimized for rendering triangles. But as you’ve found, when imported into SketchUp the mesh overwhelms it. Ruby extensions don’t perform at all well on such models.

Also, visual oriented apps generally don’t care about the sort of issues that prevent SketchUp from considering a model to be “solid”. If it looks good, that’s enough.

[simonsencody]

I created it by taking the STL found at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3213564 (the one titled full size) and inserting a compartment into the side of it, intersecting faces, and deleting the edges, faces, and lines on the inside of the compartment, leaving the cavity you see on the side.

@DaveR

I’m not going to let it run that long because I think you could model it cleanly in much less time. We’ll see what happens, though.

Do you mean it’s not worth saving at this point and I should start over? Or you’ll do what you can to clean it up? If it can be saved, I’d prefer that.

@slbaumgartner, I hope I answered your question of where I got the STL.

[DaveR]

@simonsencody

Do you mean it’s not worth saving at this point and I should start over?

I mean that I’ll let CleanUp3 run for a while and see what happens but the model itself could surely be modeled cleanly and correctly much faster than the now 18-1/2 hours that CleanUp3 indicates it will take to finish. Currently it’s removing duplicate faces and is only at 3.5%.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing with files imported from Thingiverse but I will say that every time I’ve tried to fix a file like yours, it would be easier to just start from scratch and make a good clean model instead of trying to fix someone else’s mess.

[simonsencody]

@DaveR

I mean that I’ll let CleanUp3 run for a while and see what happens but the model itself could surely be modeled cleanly and correctly much faster than the now 18-1/2 hours that CleanUp3 indicates it will take to finish. Currently it’s removing duplicate faces and is only at 3.5%.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing with files imported from Thingiverse but I will say that every time I’ve tried to fix a file like yours, it would be easier to just start from scratch and make a good clean model instead of trying to fix someone else’s mess.

I certainly appreciate you using your resources on my behalf! It means a lot to me that you’d be willing to help.

I’ll see what I can do, I just don’t know another way to do this other than to learn a different 3d modeling software and edit the STL that way. Do you have any suggestions?

I’m really looking for the original aesthetics that the original Thingiverse model provides, and am interested in having the cavity where I’ve placed it.

Thanks

[DaveR]

@simonsencody

I just don’t know another way to do this other than to learn a different 3d modeling software and edit the STL that way. Do you have any suggestions?

Why not learn how to use SketchUp and model it yourself?

We’ll see what happens in a few hours. On the bright side the remaining time seems to be going down instead of up.

[DaveR]

I went off and did other stuff last night but when I got back to my computer I found CleanUp3 had finished. Only took a bit over 8 hours.

That surely reduced what needs to be done to make the model solid but not enough.

Unfortunately I haven’t got time to spend manually chasing down all those internal face edges and surface borders.

As I wrote before, it would probably be faster to model it correctly from scratch.

On the bright side CleanUp3 did reduce the file size by about 64%.

The colored faces are interesting because there are no In Model materials shown.

[simonsencody]

This is awesome!

Would you be able to share the file? I’d love to take a look at what’s left and see how much work it would be on my end, and if my machine can handle the Solid Inspection.

I’m hesitant to model it on my own since I expect I will fail in obtaining the level of detail the original artist has in this model.

Thank you again for your work on my behalf.

[DaveR]

Good luck with it.

5.0 Tesla Compartment cleaned.skp

[simonsencody]

Thanks!

Again, I appreciate your effort on my behalf.