![]() ![]() Bringing the STL file into your printer software and printing – that part is up to you. When you’re ready to print, use File / Export STL, and you’re good to go. If you’re finding yourself unable to do certain things on certain faces, try erasing edges instead of hiding them. These edges could affect changes you want to make, such as punching holes through walls – Push / Pull won’t work on a face divided by hidden edges. You can still see them by choosing View / Hidden Edges. When making changes to your model, keep in mind that those hidden edges aren’t gone, they’re just hidden. Now you can customize the model, such as adding some 3D text. In the Soften Edges window, check both boxes and use the slider to hide all the extra edges. To hide the extra edges, simplifying your display, select everything and right-click on any selected face. The extra edges you see are due to triangulation STL models consist only of triangular faces. If your model template has a large scale, and you don’t see anything appear, choose Camera / Zoom Extents to bring everything into view. Make sure you’re looking for files of STL format, and bring in the downloaded model.Īfter a bit of computing, which can take a while for complex, curvy, high-poly models, the converted objects come into SketchUp. There are lots of things you’d want to print as they are, but what if you want to personalize a model you find? To get the STL file (or files, for multi-part models) from Thingiverse, click the “Download This Thing!” button.ĭownload the STL, and in SketchUp, choose File / Import. (If you ever need 3D printing ideas, you can’t beat Thingiverse for range and scope). Import STLĪs an example, I found this simple little box on Thingiverse. This example will show how to find a generic box in STL format, bring it into SketchUp to personalize it, and export it back into STL for printing. This extension can also be used to import STL files into SketchUp. 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.The SketchUp STL extension I discussed in Part 1 of this series can be used to export your 3D printable model in SketchUp into STL format, to be read by a 3D printer. 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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