# Blender for Mac .STL Compatibility

**URL:** <https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/blender-for-mac-stl-compatibility/1632>\
**Category:** Software\
**Created:** [April 11, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/blender-for-mac-stl-compatibility/1632 "2015-04-11T21:29:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Snortimer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.lulzbot.com/snortimer/32/9198_2.png) [@Snortimer](https://forum.lulzbot.com/u/Snortimer)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/blender-for-mac-stl-compatibility/1632/1 "2015-04-11T21:29:45Z")

</div>

Hello!

I’m using Blender (2.73a) for Mac to design parts, and I’m changing the units and those are working. I’m able to print parts, and they’re dimensionally correct.

I do have an odd problem, though. Slic3r (and Mac OS X, for that matter), seem to both see the .STL files as empty. OS X will preview the file (as not having a part), and Slic3r will import it (no part, no layers).

If I open the file in Meshlab, and save it as an .STL, but I still get the same results. Cura can open and slice it just fine, and Simplify3D converts it to inches and it’s very, very small.

Is there something odd in the way that Blender exports .STL files? Am I doing something crazy?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Snortimer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.lulzbot.com/snortimer/32/9198_2.png) [@Snortimer](https://forum.lulzbot.com/u/Snortimer)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/blender-for-mac-stl-compatibility/1632/2 "2015-04-11T21:42:35Z")

</div>

Ah-ha!

I think I knew this once, and forgot it. Blender uses 1m as the unit size in metric, but doesn’t do any conversions for the .STL export. I was working in mm, but I need to pretend that 1 unit is 1 mm, and just make everything 1000 times larger than it will actually be.

Oops. I guess Cura auto-corrects the scale for me.