Need to import 550MB STL file, but Cura won't load it

[mcm001 0]

Hi,

I need to 3d print a model of Chile for a school project. I've got an STL from a site called terrain2stl, combined all the files in Netfabb, but now Cura won't load it. The file is about 550MB. Slic3r, Netfabb and 3d Builder all load it on my home (gaming) machine, but the school Macbook won't load it in Cura. Am I running into a size limit? How do I load it, short of generating G-code in Slic3r?

[gr5 2,230]

That's too big. Aim for about 2million polygons or smaller (about 30mb to 100mb or smaller). There are some great, easy to use programs to decimate polygons. This one is pretty quick and pretty easy to use. ACtually it might be slow to load the initial 500mb file but then it's pretty good after that:

Meshlab:

http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/polygon_reduction_with_meshlab

[DaHai8 74]

The file might be in ascii instead of binary. Cura can read both. Try converting it to a binary STL file, if NetFabb has that option, and then try loading it again. That will make the file itself much smaller (if its a file size issues and not a polygon issue).

[brzasshopper 1]

You might try two things. One is to install Cura on your home machine, and the other is to install Cura 2.6. There are a couple of things that I could not slice in Cura 2.5 forcing me to go to kisslicer, that I was able to slice in 2.6.

And, of course, the other possibility is to reduce polygons. Chances are that you won't see all that detain in a 3D print in any case.

[geert_2 558]

...

And, of course, the other possibility is to reduce polygons.  Chances are that you won't see all that detain in a 3D print in any case.

Yes, I think this is a good idea: any details smaller than about 0.4mm in X- and Y-direction, will be hidden by the 0.4mm nozzle lines anyway (if you use a 0.4mm nozzle). And if you print in layers of 0.1mm, any vertical details smaller than 0.1mm will also be lost anyway. So you could as well reduce the details to these resolutions.

If you plan to sand and paint the model for a smoother surface, you could reduce everything to 0.5mm resolution, I guess. The rest will be sanded off anyway.

If you can cut the original model in small pieces, you could try this on a small part first, so you don't lose too much time and plastic if results are not satisfying.