Thread: Any one to help with some 3D modeling?

Im just starting out with sketchup. I have a finished model but when I upload it to printing service there are massive gaps and random detail failures that just don't show up in Sketchup.

This is Superbadace's son:

Are you trying to print to paper or a 3d printer? If it's 3d what model do you have and what is the format you're exporting the file to?

We will need more info. Could you share that model as a .step file ? What print service ? Screenshot of the problem. etc. Never 3D printed but done a bit of CNC programing and I have a good set of CAD software.

Im making he designs in sketchup 2017, exporting as OBJ files to shapeways.com

So this is pretty much what I'm trying to make,


This is my design





And the green pics are the issues Shapeways is detecting.

The dome on the top has a massive gap that doesn't appear in sketchup.
The detail on the fans it completely lost.
There are two square blocks on the side of the fan box that Shapeways shows as hollow for some reason.

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If its not beyond obvious, Im completely new to 3D designing

Sick models, especially if you're truly new to 3D modeling.

STL (Stereolithography File) is what you need, the higher the tessellation the more detail. Try looking for a STL plugin, a quick search gave me this. SketchUp STL | SketchUp Extension Warehouse Unfortunately there's no preview of the export options so I'm unsure how to direct you further. Try saving every option and try keeping the tolerance options as low as possible. Then try opening the STL to see the results.

3D printing has gotten much easier. In the past one single gap regardless how small, would make your 3D solid model turn into 2D poop. Make sure you zoom into complex surface changes and try to fix or fill in the gaps if any.

Also separate each solid part as a separate file. Save anything that is a separate piece as a separate file. For example, it looks like the hanger bay top is removable, separate sketchup file.

2D planes must have a thickness to be a solid. You need a minimum of 4 sides to make a 3D solid.

Dang, one more thing, if your not aware already. Textures do not print in 3D as they are 2D planes. You must model all details and textures for it to print. You may be able to find some software that can convert 2D to 3D.

OK, two things. Try to smooth all radiuses in Sketchup before exporting to STL, otherwise you'll get a octagon rather than a circle.

This is the stuff I don't get, it shows a missing piece on shapeways, but sketchup is perfectly fine.

In my experience modeling things for games....

your first photo of the dome not meeting the roof is either due to
-inverted normals (on the roof up is outside the shape, and on the dome down is outside the shape, or the oposite)
-the edges are not joined, they are two seperate shapes and smoothing and or some kind of 3d printing algorithm to fix thin walls and other things is making it look wrong.

The details on the fan disapearing looks like you have edges not joined and then a smoothing elgorithm is softening all details.
-Fix the edge joining issues (the orange highlights). Then tesselate (or sometimes called subdivide) to increase the verticies in that area to counteract the smoothing that is happening. Or if you can disable smoothing that works too.

The thin wall, looks like it is too thin and is a victim of the smoothing.


The piece missing looks like your normals are flipped backwards. OR the edges aren't joined and so it doesn't think its a solid shape and is interpreting it as thin pieces of paper... then smoothing makes them go poof!