Cura leaves parts out?

[Alexander060418 0]

hello all,

 

Im kinda new to 3d printing, I use Cura as my slicer. 

I got a file from a friend of mine he wants to get printed on my printer. only when I import the stl file to Cura it look fine (some errors but non important)

But when I slice the model it leaves very big parts out?

 

thanks very much guys!

Alexander Mosselaar

[gr5 2,071]

Something is wrong with your model.  Cura only knows how to print solids but some CAD software creates all kinds of non-solids which can't be printed.  For example a cube with only 5 sides.  Also the STL file is a collection of triangles and each triangle says which side faces air and which side faces plastic.  Some CAD software gets this backwards.  Most CAD software will not let you do this.  Sketchup is a very popular CAD program that has this problem - it lets you create just flat "walls" that are infinitely thin or that are backwards.  I'm going to guess you are using sketchup (although I know of 2 others) because it's popular for architecture.

 

Here are some tips for sketchup (I have other tips for other cad packages):

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

 

In sketchup it's important to make sure surfaces are white, not gray.  Right click on gray surfaces (in sketchup) and select "reverse faces".

 

Cura has an amazing plugin to test your model to see if something is wrong with it and can repair a very few of the many potential problems:

In the upper right corner of Cura click "marketplace" and make sure you are on the "plugins" tab and install "Mesh Tools".  Then restart Cura.  Now right click on your model, choose "mesh tools" and first choose
"check mesh", then "fix model normals" and "fix simple holes" to see if that helps.  Cura doesn't fix most issues so...