Right-click on it and select ‘Explode’ to re-edit the components. This means that your model is not printable and you’ll have to check it again.
If you designed an object with holes (not watertight) and internal intersection (not in one shell) the Entity Info window will say ‘Group’.
Right-click on your object again and select ‘Entity Info’. Right-click on your object and select ‘Make Group’. Triple-click on your model with the select tool (this will select everything). Luckily SketchUp lets you check if you made any mistakes. We’ll look at an automatic way to create one outer shell later.Ĭreating watertight models with one continuous outside can be tough sometimes. It doesn’t feature paper-thin walls on the inside. The shape on the right, however, won’t be a problem to print once it is pulled into a 3D object because it will only have one ‘shell’. In the case below, the left shape will not be printable once it is pulled into a 3-dimensional object since it will feature paper-thin walls within the object. That’s why it makes sense to think about your model in a 2-dimensional space first. Intersections and walls within your design can make your life difficult since your model needs to have one continuous ‘outer shell’. Once this hole is closed (for example by drawing new lines), SketchUp recognizes that the object is solid on the inside and ready for the printer! You can see such a watertight (also referred to as manifold) object below. You can clearly see that there is one big hole on its surface. The design below is an example of a model that is not watertight. This is one of the trickiest parts of creating 3D printable models in SketchUp. Ask yourself the question: if I were to put water inside my model, would it flow out? If that’s the case you need to find these holes and close them. If you want to learn more about how thick your walls need to be exactly, make sure to read this blog post.Ī printable model must not feature any holes in its surface. The picture below shows a model with paper-thin surfaces (not printable, left) and a solid object with thick walls (printable, right). Without setting a wall thickness, a 3D printer has no information about how thick or how thin it is supposed to print your part. In order to make your SketchUp model printable, you need to ensure that each and every surface has a wall thickness. Make sure to select the same unit type that you chose in your template (millimeters or inches) when exporting, and choose the binary file format to reduce the size of your file.ģ: Avoid Paper-Thin Surfaces & Set Wall Thicknesses With the SketchUp STL extension installed you can export your model as an STL file. 
The STL file format is the most commonly used in the 3D printing community and will make it easier to share, print, and edit your design in other software.
Creating textures in sketchup for schools free#
Even though our online 3D printing service accepts these files, you might want to get SketchUp’s free STL Extension. Typically you can save your 3D model as a SketchUp file (SKP). You can change the template by clicking on Window > Preferences > Template and selecting ‘3D Printing – Millimeters’ or ‘3D Printing – Inches’. This way, you won’t need to re-scale the printing size of your model later.
Some simple clicks before getting started will make your life easier: you may want to set your SketchUp template to metric or imperial units. That’s why we put together a list of 10 simple yet effective tips and tricks to make your SketchUp design 3D printable.ġ: Set your Template to Millimeters or Inches However, preparing a SketchUp model for 3D printing can be a little tricky. SketchUp is one of the most popular 3D modeling & design programs for 3D printing, as we found out from our analysis.
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