Help!! New to designing 3d models, and Cura isn't working

[teenflon5 0]

Hello,

I'm new to making 3d models in sketchup, and a little stuck.

I've made an object in sketch up by drawing shapes and push/pulling them to size, and then drawing further shapes on the existing model. I've used the Sketchup STL export ad on to export the file, but Cura really doesn't like it. Cura has lots of missing layers, and the X ray view shows lots of problems, but I just can't understand why it's not working given I drew the shapes on top of the existing shapes.

I've tried using meshlab to create the STL and that hasn't worked. I used MakePrintable to repair it and that just made things worse. There seems to be something fundamental I'm doing wrong, but have no idea what it is. Any ideas?!

[gr5 1,292]

Keep cura xray open in one window and sketchup in a second window. Zoom in using the cura zoom controls (plus key on keypad) and drag (shift right click drag) to find the problem face. You have internal walls. If you build a cube with 6 sides. Then add a second cube to the first cube by adding 5 more walls (4 sides and an end) now you have this internal wall that is impossible to print. It is an infinitely thin wall *inside* the model.

STL files don't have "insides" and "outsides". They just have a randomly ordered set of triangles and cura intersects these with a plane to get random line segments. Cura than tries to link these lines up into loops but has trouble with this internal wall which is now an extra line segment confusing cura.

Here is a visual guide to how to clean up sketchup models:

https://i.materialise.com/blog/3d-printing-with-sketchup/

[ahoeben 807]

Unless you know what you are doing, sketchup produces stl files that are unsuitable for 3d printing. Use another application, such as TinkerCAD.

[teenflon5 0]

Thanks I've fixed it now! I assumed that it would figure out boxes drawn on top of boxes, but maybe not. I went inside the model and deleted every internal face, and then deleted every line on the model that wasn't an edge line. It now shows up perfectly in Cura

[DaHai8 69]

Thanks :)I've fixed it now! I assumed that it would figure out boxes drawn on top of boxes, but maybe not. I went inside the model and deleted every internal face, and then deleted every line on the model that wasn't an edge line. It now shows up perfectly in Cura

 

Get the 'Solid Inspector' plugin from the Sketchup Warehouse. It's free and pretty good (not perfect) at checking your models for errors: reversed faces, Stray Edges, Surface Borders, Internal Faces, etc. Save's a lot of time.

[bahaAbunojaim 2]

Have you tried the new Mammoth repair technology in MakePrintable, it should do the job, you can find it under the labs section.