![]() Let’s compare two designs side by side in netfabb: While a contour may appear smooth in the CAD, depending on approximation settings, the surface might actually be approximated. And even if the surfaces appear closed and you are still having issues, go back through the design flow to double check! Issue #2: Tessellation The key takeaway here is to make sure all the surfaces are closed. Then follow the steps to repair.įor more detailed instructions, here’s a video that goes through the common watertightness issues and shows you how to fix them: You can also do this automatically in netfabb by clicking on the red plus-sign at the top to extend some ends for you. It’s best to go back to your CAD model and remove any free ends or extend it so that it connects with another free end. Also make sure the edges of each surface are connected-each edge should have 2 adjacent surfaces, no more, no less. Solution: Make sure every surface is enclosed so that the part is “watertight,” meaning the part won’t leak if theoretically filled with water. While they appear in the digital rendering, they can’t actually be printed and would not be present in the physical model. With surface modeling, parts sometimes have walls that are infinitesimally thin. 3 Common Issues + Solutions Issue #1: Zero Wall Thickness In netfabb, you can identify watertightness issues, spot surface tessellation, and apply auto-repair, so this is an excellent tool to help you check your models for any errors. How to Check Your Modelsįirst download netfabb Basic, a free program you can use to quickly verify designs. If you’re using a program like SketchUp that uses surface modeling, it can be tricky to make your 3D model printable, so I’m going to walk you through a few of the most common errors and show you how to fix them. Many of the errors we see stem from how the digital model was created and often the main problems come down to whether the design was modeled using solid bodies or surfaces. However, you get your part back to find out that it’s not printable! If you need to be sure that the print is at actual size, measure the printed output and compare the number with the SketchUp model dimensions.You’ve created a seamless design-structurally sound, sufficiently thick, and mindful of overhangs. When you print from SketchUp, or from a PDF generated from SketchUp make sure that the physical printer is set to print at 100%, not scaled to fit the page or an arbitrary print area. They may not be the prettiest things you’ve ever seen, but the are perfectly usable. Click Patterns From SKP to download a PDF file showing the results, directly from SketchUp. To make everything fit for the bottom of the side, I had to sacrifice the outer edges of the pattern and put it on a legal size sheet in Portrait orientation. I could also have selected legal size paper and wouldn’t need to get so close. To make this fit, I held a piece of paper up to my screen to resize the window proportions and I zoomed in to fill the screen. Because I don’t want to run out of blue ink in my printer, I’ll go to the Styles window in SketchUp and turn off the display of the sky, or select a different style that is just lines. The blue color is the “sky” background in SketchUp. Here is the preview that I’m looking for - almost. That’s 19 sheets more than I want, so I need to play around with the window size and my view to get it down to a single sheet. I took this screen shot before zooming way, way in and SketchUp is ready to print all of the model (along with a great deal of the background) on twenty sheets of paper. If you print on your own machine, PAY ATTENTION TO THE TILED SHEET PRINT RANGE in the lower left corner or the dialogue box. You can then take (or e-mail) the PDF to someone with a great big printer (I use my local Staples store). Set up the page size for a large sheet, 24 x 36 or 36 x 48 are standard sizes. If you want a real big print on a single sheet, you can find software online that will let you create PDF files as a virtual printer. I can also select my inkjet printer and put these on letter or legal size paper. I have my machine set to “print” an Adobe PDF file so I can show you the results. The numbers and units should match, as seen here where an inch in the printout equals an inch in SketchUp.Īt the top of the box you can select your printer. That lets you change the numbers below Scale. To print to full size (or any specific scale) uncheck the box that says “Fit to page”. ![]() When you click “OK” you will see what will go to your printer. If you’re in “Print Preview” it’s safe to play around with the different settings to see what happens. Checking or unchecking some of the boxes changes the options that are available. ![]() ![]() Here is what the dialogue box looks like.
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