Sketchup model printed with missing parts

[rubin 1]

hello guys,

i'm a new ultimaker2 user and my main purpose of buying one is printing architectural models

so i have an appartment model that i want to print which i actually printed a small one as a test and got excited..

when i went back to sketchup i've played around with the furniture and turned it into a cube like models to make it easier to print and then exported the STL file and loaded it into CURA (v 15.04.2) i didnt really focus on the layers view as i've already printed a previous one with no problems,, when i came to see the final print a 1 cm layer around the whole model was missing and filled with support instead.. and that was obvious at the layers view

i went back to sketchup and tried to figure out what i've changed.,. and i couldnt succeed.. i'm uploading the sketchup and stl file ..

i'd appreciate helping me with this problem

thank you in advance

Rubin

Sketchup File

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxv1gjh6byu4umf/Appartment.skp?dl=0

STL file

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hervc1jxs2kjo9m/Appartment.stl?dl=0

[gr5 2,172]

I looked at your stl in cura "xray view" and there was a LOT of red. Yikes. red is bad - it means you have holes - or more likely in this case - extra walls *inside* the model which can confuse cura. Fortunately most of them seem to be horizontal walls which cura will ignore if it's on a layer that is slightly above or below a slice which is probably 99% of the time. Also using "fix horrible type A" should fix most of the other errors.

But you might want to avoid sketchup if you can - or pass your model through the free website at netfabb where it repairs your stl.

Anyway... to your question.

I didn't see any support at all - I turned on suppport "touching buildplate" and saw nothing. I'm using cura 15.04 (not into that crazy beta 15.06 - maybe that's the issue).

Your part is very small - about 1cm. That small all the walls are too thin to print with .4mm nozzle. You can get a smaller nozzle (google olsson block) or you can scale it up. I scaled it up 10X and it looks much better but still - no support. So not sure what you mean. A screenshot from cura with arrow pointing to the issue might help.

[gr5 2,172]

Okay - just now I looked more closely at other issues - I saw your walls stop for a while - on the scale of an actual apartment - the walls go up about a foot and then stop for a few feet and then come back. This is caused by beds and couches that are touching the outer wall yet also have a wall. So you have walls *inside* your solids which is impossible. You need to remove all those inner walls on the backs of all the couches so that there is one continuous solid space. cura gets very confused by those impossible walls *inside* things. In xray view you see all these errors as red - get rid of all the vertical red planes (horizontal red planes not a problem.

[gr5 2,172]

Sketchup is great for visual models because the eye can't see through walls but it is horrible for physical (printable models or for say simulations of stress points or temperature flow) models.

For example if you look at the master bed in xray view on either side of the bed are these boxes (night stands). The part that touches the floor and wall are both red (extra internal wall). The one touching the floor you can just leave alone and is probably fine but the one that touches the wall is a problem - you have to delete those.

[rubin 1]

Man!.. you're amazing. . They should call you gr8 "great" ...you've been so helpful .. I actually know nothing about the xray mode ... I'll make more searching about it if you can guide me through. .. and your notes about the Sketchup file are gr8 too.. usually my files are much cleaner than this.. its just because this file is imported from Revit .. which is so tricky in the terms of clean..

I'll see what happens when I get to the office .. many thanks again

 

Sketchup is great for visual models because the eye can't see through walls but it is horrible for physical (printable models or for say simulations of stress points or temperature flow) models.

For example if you look at the master bed in xray view on either side of the bed are these boxes (night stands).  The part that touches the floor and wall are both red (extra internal wall).  The one touching the floor you can just leave alone and is probably fine but the one that touches the wall is a problem - you have to delete those.

 

[shurik 87]

Once upon the time, @Daid (the guy who wrote Cura) gave me the advice of exporting files in DAE format. He said, Cura has fewer problems with them.

He was obviously right, saving lots of my time.

[rubin 1]

thank you guys ..

i'm actually dying here :(

i have this really simple model (~1000 faces) .. and still the same problems with missing walls and stuff..

is there any tutorial or details of what exactly the sketchup model should be like?

it's frustrating ...

[shurik 87]

 

@rubin - what size do you want the model to be? The original as in the files or scaled? I'll try to have a look on it if the time permits.

[gr5 2,172]

If you are in a rush simply run the model through the netfabb website - it's free, takes a few seconds and fixes 90% of the problems with models to make them printable.

[rubin 1]

yes i tried it.. it's amazing for simple models.. but for more complex models it makes alot of deformations .. i think the problem is in sketchup itself as it's a face modelling application ..not a solid modelling one .. i need the experience of an architect or at least someone who works with architectural models .. maybe i'll make another post for this

 

If you are in a rush simply run the model through the netfabb website - it's free, takes a few seconds and fixes 90% of the problems with models to make them printable.