Designs Not Printing Correctly

[chris850]

Its perfect! May I ask how you went about fixing it? Im curious that way I know next time

[RobH2]

I rebuilt it in 3ds Max. You'd have modeled it the same way in Blender if you had used it. Both are surface or mesh modelers. Then I exported both an .stl and .obj version for you. This design might have just as easily been modeled in a CAD program like SolidWorks (insanely expensive) or IronCAD (expensive but reasonable). Both are expensive but there are some lower cost and at least one free open-source CAD program out there. They are parametric modelers and are called 'solid' modelers. It's sometimes easier to model non-organic objects in these CAD programs and because of the parametric nature of them, it's quite easy to modify dimensional requirements if those change.

I'd try FreeCAD (steep learning curve), Meshmixer (easy) and Blender (steepest learning curve but you get animation). These are all free.

If you are a student, the supercharged CAD programs are all really affordable. I'd love to get my hands on a student version of Solidworks. It's about $8500 for a commercial license and I think it's only a few hundred for the student version.

If you are going to really put your 3d printer to work, it's critical that you are able to do some good modeling. Otherwise you are at the mercy of Thingiverse, etc. There's a lot there but not everything. And besides, once you print your phone case or a few super hero characters downloaded from there, you need to move on...lol....well, unless you want the Itty Bitty double extruder by our user "clough42.' It's one of the best things on Thingiverse...(how's that for a plug clough42?)

[chris850]

They only thing that really has me confused with blender is the measurements, I dont see anywhere I can either enter/change/view measurements of the object. Ive read through almost all the user manual and cant find it lol. Its deff a learning curve from Sketch up.

[RobH2]

I've only played with Blender a few times just so I know how it looks and so that I can talk about it without guessing. 3ds Max is my primary program and it's difficult to measure in it also. There is a helper tool called a "tape" that you can snap from vertex to vertex to measure. But is has no dimensioning tools like Sketchup and CAD programs. It's not a fault in the programs, I think that's just the nature of mesh modeling. It's not driven by dimensions and constraints (not parametric) so you learn workarounds to get things the right size.

FYI, it took me two years on 3ds Max every day to feel like I could really model what I needed to. It's very powerful and very difficult to master. If you stick with Blender, it will get easier each time you touch it. In no time you'll have it down. It doesn't get any easier than Sketchup. But that's part of it's downside I think. To make it that easy, you have to give up a few things.

Let us know if you have any more problems.

[chris850]

Is there something I can use to repair the issues with the model coming from sketch up? Prob not lol. Ive just been trying a couple diff ones, meshmixer seems really limited on standard shapes and designs and more towards free hand drawing, Freecad is also a big learning curve trying to find all the normal buttons and actions Im used to using in sketch up. Im pretty sure Im going to have to figure out one of these because I imagine sketch up is a no go for a solid image to be able to print from it

[ssayer]

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Ex...ol/Measurement

[RobH2]

Are you a student by chance? I think there is an educational license for Autodesk's Fusion360 which is a cool parametric modeler. As for fixing bad meshes, I don't know how you can do that without a solid program. It sort of takes some power to find the flaws and then allow you to fix them. Most free and simple programs don't have that advanced functionality.

So, give your brain some exercise and jump in and ride that learning curve. You can do it.... It will change your 3d life...

Note about Freecad. I tried it for a few weeks and I have to say it's one of the most confusing and frustrating of the CAD programs I did demos of, but it's free and if you have the patience, it looks powerful. I recently did demos of: SolidWorks, IronCAD, Fusion360, OpenSCAD (want to fry your brain try this one), SolidEdge, TurboCAD and a couple of others in search for the perfect sub $1000 CAD program. I could not find one that suited me and wasn't just insanely difficult to figure out. IronCAD was the best from my standpoint but it's not cheap, cheaper than a lot of them but still over my $1000 limit.

You can rent Fusion360 by the month. I hate this monthly rental scheme that Autocad and Adobe have now. Bending over that barrel is hurting my ribs but that's a soapbox for a later time. If you aren't a student though, you can rent Fusion360 pretty cheaply for month-to-month, do a lot of work and then not use it until the next time. That might be an option if they let you stop and go, but, they probably prohibit that as it makes the barrel softer.

'ssayer' supplied the measureing tips for Blender. So, for now I hope you have some options.

This might help: Comparison_of_computer-aided_design_editors

[chris850]

Awesome, got the add on, I guess Im going to play with this thing for the day. No Im not a student, I build personal vaporizers (box mods). Im using the 3d printer to print battery holders (sleds) for the inside of my boxes to hold several diff batteries and several sizes. Its a lot for just one component of the box but I would rather print my own and have the freedom to make changes to it without spending 12 bucks a sled, (I go through about 200-300 boxes a month). Im also going to be printing the entire box also once I get everything down. But just to clarify, using blender Im am most likely not going to have any mesh issues or am I still going to have to repair it?

[ssayer]

Honestly, I run everything through Netfabb just as a matter of course...

[RobH2]

Need to investigate Netfabb. Don't know if it. I guess it's a mesh checker.

If you learn to model cleanly, you won't have to repair anything you build in Blender. You can just export your .stl or .obj files. Like anything, if you model sloppy, well, then you'll have errors. I'd bet that you could have gotten a clean model in Sketchup. Your part was not that complex. You had some back surfaces that were coincident with the bottoms of your curved battery slots, meaning, that they occupied the exact same place in space. That confuses a model that's supposed to be hollow and have an inside. You might want to try again in Sketchup and be very careful that your back surface doesn't intersect or lie exactly on the back or your curved battery slots.