If you were to fill it with water, none would drain out, and the model must not have any extra lines or faces. Solid, sometimes called “watertight” or “manifold” simply means the model is a complete enclosure. Here are some examples of Solid Sketchup models. This is by far the most common problem beginners have when modeling for 3D printing. Models must be “Solid” to be 3D printable. Make your model “Solid” in Sketchup to be 3D Printable Here are some common problems that I see beginners struggling with and how to address them.ġ. The process of modeling for 3D printing is much the same as 3D modeling anything else, but with a few specific requirements.
With the rise of personal 3D printers like the Makerbot Replicator 2, and 3D print services like Shapeways and Ponoko, nearly everyone has access to this technology.īut how does one get started making awesome models for 3D printing? Its one thing to make a model look good on the screen, but quite another to make a model that looks good and actually works in real life. You send a 3D computer model to a machine and out comes a finished part, ready to use as an end product or as a prototype before mass manufacturing. 3D printing is awesome – we can all agree on that.
