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Shapeways help

Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 3:53 am
by Ginger
Hey all,

I've been designing a puzzle on Google Sketchup to be printed on shapeways. However, whenever I try to order, an error occurs. Apparently my design has "non fixable shells."

Unfortunately, this is the first time I have ever used both shapeways and sketchup, so I am at a loss. :oops:

If anyone is willing to help me, you can download the .dae file at: http://www.shapeways.com/model/250401/i ... tml?gid=ug
Just suggesting what to do would help!

Thanks
Andrew

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:55 am
by maztec
Nonfixable shells or non-manifold?

http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/ ... odels.html

Lot of things on fixing various issues. Make sure you merge your solids.

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 4:05 am
by Ginger
maztec wrote:Nonfixable shells or non-manifold?
:? good question... the error message said nonfixable shells, so I'm going with that
maztec wrote: Make sure you merge your solids.
:shock: That might help :roll:

not all shapes have to be triangles, right? (shapeways has a link for netfabb that checks over my design, but it keeps changing all the shapes to triangles)

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:09 am
by bluesign2k
Pretty much every 3D will create it's slice files from an STL file which essentially is your design represented as a number of triangles. So when you say it changes your shapes to triangles I'm assuming you don't actually mean than your shapes turn into giant triangles?

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 7:26 pm
by Ginger
No no, just if there is a square, the program automatically draws a diagonal.

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 10:34 pm
by adamwest
In Picasa view hidden lines it will show you the triangles.

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 11:24 pm
by bluesign2k
Ginger wrote:No no, just if there is a square, the program automatically draws a diagonal.
As in it draws a diagonal line through the square? That's exactly what I'd expect it do...

If you make an stl and want it checking then I'd happily take a look for you - my research is entirely based on 3D printing and rapid prototyping... I could event try a test print if you wanted?

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 10:00 pm
by Ginger
bluesign2k wrote:If you make an stl and want it checking then I'd happily take a look for you
That would be awesome! how should i send it to you (email?)

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 9:00 pm
by Ginger
Thanks Chris for the help!

My design arrived today, and I fixed up the model based on the result. Here's a pic:
Image

This is on shapeways at http://www.shapeways.com/model/250401/i ... tml?gid=ug, FWIW[(c) Allard? :P ]

Re: Shapeways help

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 10:53 pm
by Naz737
The cumulative brain power is scary... :P