I am new to SketchUp so please bear with me. I made a 3D drawing, uploaded the SketchUp file to 3D Warehouse and ticked the checkbox “I want this to be 3D Printable”. However I can’t download any STL file. Is this because the model is not printable?
The file (insert03.skp) is labeled “Hammond extension” and can be found by searching for the tags “Hammond” and “1591”. If anyone has any suggestion I would highly appreciate it.
It’s got a couple of problems that prevent it from being printable. First, there’s reversed faces. Second, it’s not solid.
Stray edges and internal faces prevent it from being solid. The simple definition for “solid” is that every edge is shared by exactly two faces. No more, no less. Face orientation is important because that tells the printed what’s out and what’s in.
Get Solid Inspector2 from the Extension Warehouse.
Hammond Extension.skp (112.9 KB)
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Hi Dave,
thank you so much for the fast reply - indeed Solid Inspector seems to solve the issues with a single click, that’s great. It looks like the STL export file is now correctly sliced by my 3D printer software.
Thanks again !
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Hey a bigger question than the one you asked. Are you using the Warehouse to generate your STL? If so I suppose that works but you can get the SketchUp export STL tool from the extension warehouse. Then you will have a “Export STL” menu item and it will save you loads of time!
Hi Robajohn,
I initially did try out the Export STL option, but I noticed that the generated STL was not 3D-printable. Then I read somewhere that the 3D Warehouse had an option for correcting an skp file and create a printable STL from that, so that’s what I tried out but it didn’t seem to work (no error reports but also no STL download). Daves hint for using Solid Inspector instead solved it for me, along with the STL export extension which you suggested.
regards,
Xavier
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Yes! Solid Inspector is the best! It’s a good thing I don’t use touch screens as I would wear out the spot on the screen where the button was! 
Can I have a look at your file please.
Hi leen,
this was a very first trial to design something using Sketchup. The reply of DaveR above contains the file as attachment, after using Solid Inspector to correct the errors.
After that I wanted to start from an existing Hammond design to apply some changes and have the enclosure printed. I imported the stl file which is published on the Hammond website, however Solid Inspector wasn’t able to correct the errors on that imported design, and I didn’t succeed to manually correct those errors. If interested, below you find the 2 problem files attached.
1591XXLSFL.skp (1.8 MB)
1591XXLSFL_LID.skp (2.5 MB)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_4LRXmDQmRud2lSSFNSNW5FRTQ/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_4LRXmDQmRuckZQTXE4Rm1zWDA/view?usp=sharing
Now you can ensure that your 3D models are watertight and solid. let me know if your error is fixed now.
Hi Leen,
thanks a lot for looking into this. Unfortunately Sketchup Make 2017 doesn’t succeed in opening your files. The import of the STL file just hangs. The import of the obj file succeeded, but then Sketchup hangs when I try to explode the single object in the 70MB skp file.
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I’ve tried reducing the file size on mesh labs but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. I tried to help out, and ill try a few other things and get back to you.
It would be easier to draw that box and lid from scratch than to fix all the garbage from the original files.
Much appreciated, Leen - I don’t expect you to spend much more time on this, if there’s an easy fix it would be great though.
DaveR, understood, thanks for pointing that out. To be honest I have zero experience in Sketup and in mechanical design in general - I’m an electronics engineer. I hoped to be able to simply adjust the height of the existing box and add a few holes to it without spending too much time. I can imagine creating this type of design from scratch (including the different PCB mounting standoffs) is an easy task for someone with sufficient experience in these tools.
Unfortunately in this case I think that’s a bit like cutting a couple of inches off an existing circuit board and removing a few diodes.
More time invested making it work than to build up what you actually need.
Maybe a demonstration of how to draw this sort of thing would be useful.