Designs Not Printing Correctly

[chris850]

Im a noob to the 3d printing world but trying to learn, I did a little reading on the forum in the first couple pages I thought were relevant to my issue but couldn't find my answer. So here goes. Im making my models in sketch up exporting as 3d image (obj. file) and loading the into CURA to rotate them around and to get the g-code. Everything looks great in Cura and in sketch up, I get it into Repetier Host and the Preview looks good. Once it starts printing first there is a noticeable gap between lines Ive tried increasing the flow rate and slowing feed rate and it dose not help. My filament material settings and size are correct. I let it go ahead and print and that where things get interesting. Say I have a rectangle with a inner rectangle laying flat, it will print 2/3rd's of the rectangle on the first-third layer then on the 4th layer it trys to print the entire thing. I've tried designing the model differently and making sure everything is flattened on the plan so all is included in the first layer with no luck. The printer is a Prusa A600 (china printer). Any help or ideas is much appreciated and if Im leaving out some needed information to help diagnose let me know I will try to add them

[RobH2]

The important thing but the hardest thing it to figure out where the error is coming from. You need to eliminate as many things as you can and zero in on the issue. If you will upload your model I'll make sure it is a good manifold, meaning, that it's watertight and has no errors. If the model is faulty then you might have your solution. If the model is fine, then you know to look elsewhere.

[chris850]

Im trying to figure out how to upload the model lol. Thats sad I know

[chris850]

triple 18650 v2.obj
Ok figured it out

[RobH2]

Got it. Let me have a look.

[chris850]

Awesome, thank you for your help

[RobH2]

The mesh has problems. That's not uncommon for SketchUp. It's notorious for "not playing well with others." Let me see if I can get it open and fix it.

Below is the report on the mesh from Rhino3D:

---------------------------------Begin Paste------------------------

This is a bad mesh.

Here is what is wrong with this mesh:
Mesh has 1 degenerate face.
Mesh has 175 non manifold edges.
Mesh has 3 duplicate faces.
Skipping face direction check because of positive non manifold edge count.

Important things to consider with this mesh:
Mesh has 6 naked edges. Although this does not necessarily mean that the mesh is bad,
naked edges can cause problems if the ultimate goal is STL output.
Mesh has 5 pairs of faces that intersect each other. Although this does not
necessarily mean that the mesh is bad, it can cause problems if you're doing mesh boolean operations with it.

General information about this mesh:
Mesh does not have any extremely short edges.
Mesh does not have any disjoint pieces.
Mesh does not have any unused vertices.

ID: 7913ece1-fcf2-46d1-a7c9-c62df5a9ee08 (4)
Layer name: Model
Render Material:
source = from layer
index = -1
Geometry:
Valid mesh.
Open double precision polygon mesh: 616 vertices, 423 polygons with normals
bounding box: (31.948,2.57144,0) to (86.7085,83.7525,13.5093)
Geometry UserData:
UserData ID: 3B7FB506-437C-431e-B1D7-93C4CBFF417F
Plug-in: Rhino
description: Gumball grip frame
saved in file: yes
copy count: 1
UserData ID: 31F55AA3-71FB-49f5-A975-757584D937FF
Plug-in: 17b3ecda-17ba-4e45-9e67-a2b8d9be520d
description: Mesh N-gon list
saved in file: yes
copy count: 1
UserData ID: 17F24E75-21BE-4a7b-9F3D-7F85225247E3
Plug-in: c8cda597-d957-4625-a4b3-a0b510fc30d4
description: ON_Mesh double precision vertices
saved in file: yes
copy count: 1

[chris850]

Wow yea that looks deff screwed up, I chose sketch up because it was google based and is fairly easy to use, Is there another free 3d modeling software you would recommend that I would be less likely to run into these problems, or is this something more along the lines of user error lol

[RobH2]

Here you go. Try these. Let me know if they help. They are error free.

triple 18650 v3.obj
triple 18650 v3.STL

As for free software, Blender is probably the most powerful but has a steep learning curve. Still, it's really great. There is a CAD program called FreeCAD I think that will do solid modeling. Finally, try Meshmixer. It's a slicer too.

[ssayer]

At least there are a lot of video tutorials for Blender. Both from them and on Youtube. I was able to pick and choose because I only cared about designing for my 3D Printer (obviously I don't need to be able to draw 3D animation! ). A number of the videos took me a few times watching to really get them, but all in all it wasn't that impossible. Also, google for a keyboard shortcut cheat sheet for it. Two different cheat sheets gets you everything you need (of course you still have to learn what the shortcuts all do!).