A little history: I downloaded a boat model from Sketchup warehouse. I edited it somewhat by removing the deck house, and a few other deletions. It prints fine with Cura. I don’t know how the model was created but there were no problems with the download. The model is meshed with triangles. Lots of them.
The problem is that I cannot get anything to print inside the model. (think canoe shape). I can create objects with Sketchup which print fine by themselves, but when placed in the model they won’t print, except for any portion which is outside the model envelope either poking thru the hull or protruding out the top. Like a mast. When viewing the model in Cura, it looks fine until I look and the actual tool path, and then nothing inside.
I export everything to the printer in .stl format. There must be something going on here that I am missing or that I don’t understand.
OK, here are the files. The original I downloaded from Sketchup Warehouse is too large to post. The Skp is the model I am working from, and you can see that the mast socket does not reach the bottom of the hull. If I extend it to the bottom, Cura won’t print it. In order to support it while printing, I use the minimum fill which will intersect it, usually around 4%, ( I want it light so it sails well; I also print the deck with only 2 x 0.15 mm layers for lightness. If the mast socket would print properly I would extend it, forget the fill and print the deck with 3-4 layers.)
That model isn’t manifold. It will never print correctly until that is corrected. Think of manifold like being the skin of a balloon. If you have holes in that skin that aren’t supposed to be there, you don’t have a balloon. The object needs to be one uniform joined solid when exported to STL
Yeah… There’s a lot of work to be done in Sketchup to get the model to print. Can you copy the link to the original from the Sketchup Warehouse? Maybe there’s a different way to fix the drawing…
Do you have a sample of what you’re trying put in the Keel? It basically needs to fill the void complete to make it manifold.
I don’t think I can make it manifold. The original file is too big to post. I don’t understand why it prints when the mast socket is not touching the hull, but not when it is. Apparently the fill function does not care if it is manifold or not?!
BTW I have described my workaround above; maybe I should be happy with that. I don’t want to spend a whole lot more time on this problem. I was hoping for an “aha” solution.
Pete
I tried to upload the original model and is too large. However I looked at it, and the boat cabin has open windows so I cant see how it could be manifold. I haven’t been printing the upper parts of the model anyway.
Manifold means that an object is some sort of solid object without any missing faces. Take a cube for example. If you have a solid cube, but you remove one face (via an error, or improper design codeing, etc.) you would basically have a hollow box. You still think it’s a cube, your design and drawing is built on that being a cube, but when you attempt to print it you end up with a melted hollow box instead of the cube you were hoping for. What usually happens, and what looks like it happened in this case is that the design was made up of multiple curved flat surfaces that were not actually joined together to a solid object. The design software hasn’t stitched those parts together into a solid object, likely because it thinks they are separate pieces even though they are touching. For example, the deck hatch edge is missing the entire inner strip that would join the top and bottom of the deck. The point where the rudder and the hull meets is missing geometry, and there is a weird hole up on the upper right rear coaming.
A boat cabin could have window holes in it and still be manifold. The difference is that the window hole is supposed to be in that structure, and the inside edge of the hole should be a piece of the object (for example a 1" thick cabin wall panel should have a 1" thick cylinder where a round window hole would be, going from the front to the back of the panel. Here’s a good tutorial on what manifold really means and how to start troubleshooting things. http://3dprintingninja.blogspot.com/2014/07/non-manifolds-your-worst-nightmare.html#!/2014/07/non-manifolds-your-worst-nightmare.html
