SOLVED 3d model not appearing in Cura

[Evolution_dc 0]

Hey everybody,

I'm brand new to 3D modelling with blender. I've probably bitten off a little bit more than I can chew with this. So I'm making a remix of a Pikachu model off of thingiverse in order to 3D print it as a gift for my girlfriend's brother.

I have added the '3D-print' tool to blended and run the 'check all' command. Blender stops responding and crashes.

When I try and load the model in cura after exporting as an stl, it says 'increased scale by 10000%.

The model doesn't show up in cura regardless of scaling.

I would really appreciate some help and teaching from anyone willing to lend their time.

Thanks 

 

Pikachu for Jakub (1 piece) -PikachuThick_tail.stl

Pikachu for Jakub (1 piece) .stl

1349468595_PikachuforJakub(1piece).stl Pikachu for Jakub (1 piece) -PikachuThick_tail.stl

[gr5 2,224]

Your model has 7 million triangles!  That's crazy.  It took an entire minute to load it into cura.

 

I decimated pikachu using this technique down to only 70,000 triangles which is still way more than you need.  Maybe still too many.  stl attached.

 

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

 

 

pika.stl

[gr5 2,224]

So cura mesh tools complains that your model is 3 separate meshes but it prints reasonably well despite that.

 

The hat and heat print separately as you can see so it won't be as solid of a model.  You could fill in the space between.

 

 

Anyway I think most of your issues will go away when you go from 7 million to just 70 thousand triangles.

 

It appears to be in inches.  STL files should always be exported to mm even if you used inches to edit it.  I mulitplied by 2540% (25.4X) and got this (each square is 1cm so bigger than it may look - it's a big printer):

 

Your model in meshlab - note how in the purple area at the bottom - number of faces...

[gr5 2,224]

The picture just above you can see the hat looks like it was copper worked with a ball hammer, lol.   That's what happens when you reduce the triangles. But those surfaces get lost when you 3d print it.  Unless you are doing a huge pikachu as big as a human.

[Evolution_dc 0]

@gr5

 

Thank you so much for your support. No wonder it was 341mb. I have downloaded your 'Pika' Stl file and it comes up with these messages when I attempt to load into cura. 

 

 

 

 

[gr5 2,224]

It works fine for me.  This is strange.  You can't select the model?

 

After the model loads, on a PC type ctrl+a (mac is command A) - this selects all models (but you only have one so that's perfect).  Then use the tools on the left side of the screen to scale it down to only be 2540%.

 

Then using the move too above make sure Z position is set to zero.

 

Now it should be visible.  If not click "slice" anyway and see if it's visible in PREVIEW mode.

[Evolution_dc 0]

@gr5

 

Problem solved!!! Turns out the model was floating off in space. Thank you so much! I'll try and print him out and see how I get on. 

 

Cheers ❤️