Solid or shelled print confusion

[aeviaanah]

When I use Sketchup, my models appear to be solid but are in fact a series of connecting planes without thickness. If i fed this Gcode to a 3d printer what would I expect?

Do i need a plugin to shell or solidify the model?

Tap handle fina2l.jpgTap handle final.jpg

[Geoff]

run it through netfabb cloud first, then put it through the slicer, it will do the work for you

http://cloud.netfabb.com/

[aeviaanah]

run it through netfabb cloud first, then put it through the slicer, it will do the work for you

http://cloud.netfabb.com/

Thanks for this tool. Ill give it a shot. I ended up redrafting it in Autodesk Inventor.

[aeviaanah]

Tap Handle Solid Colored.jpg

Heres where Im at in Inventor. Still got some work to do

[Ripkened]

Tap Handle Solid Colored.jpg

Heres where Im at in Inventor. Still got some work to do

This looks great. Do you own a bar?

What ended up happening with netfabb? Did it make it solid or shelled?

[aeviaanah]

This looks great. Do you own a bar?

What ended up happening with netfabb? Did it make it solid or shelled?

Thanks man! I'm really not sure what netfabb did. I ended up ditching sketchup and going to Inventor and redrafting. I now have a solid object which is what I think the slic3r needs.

I dont have a bar but I do have a 4 tap kegerator. I like to brew my own beer.

[ShaneH]

(Better late than never)...

I use sketchup for the modelling, with the sketchy physics plugin for checking clearances and motion problems, export to stl (stl export plugin), use netFabb Basic to auto-fix any holes and make any changes to orientation then re-export it back over the original stl, then chuck it through slic3r..etc.
Sketchup has some very nice plugins, including one I found recently called 'bender' for bending shapes around paths. Ever wanted to create a really nice nut and bolt?..get this plugin to bend a thread profile shape around a helix. Too easy.