Book Image

3D Printing with SketchUp - Second Edition

By : Aaron Dietzen Aka 'the Sketchup Guy'
Book Image

3D Printing with SketchUp - Second Edition

By: Aaron Dietzen Aka 'the Sketchup Guy'

Overview of this book

Working with the amazing 3D printing technology and getting access to the printing hardware is now easier than ever before. While there are many other resources that cover the general process of 3D printing, this book is the ultimate guide to creating models for 3D printing using SketchUp. You’ll start with a basic understanding of how SketchUp is used in the 3D printing workflow and jump into the steps to create a print-ready model using only SketchUp. This 3D printing book will guide you in using SketchUp to modify existing 3D files and cover additional tools that make SketchUp an even more powerful modeling tool. As you advance, you’ll learn how to transform 2D images into 3D printable solids, how to create multi-part prints that can be assembled without the use of fasteners or glue, and how to make sure your model, whether designed from scratch or assembled from preexisting geometry, is ready to be made real via your 3D printer. By the end of this book, you’ll have the confidence to bring your design ideas to life by generating your own 3D print-ready models with SketchUp.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting Prepared to Print
6
Part 2: Modeling for 3D Printing

Summary

In this chapter, we covered the basics of SketchUp’s .skp and .stl files so that you understand the difference. You also saw the exact steps needed to export your model as a .stl file that can be used by your slicer. Finally, we walked through the process of importing .stl files so that they can be edited in SketchUp.

When it comes to using SketchUp as a part of the 3D printing workflow, exporting .stl files is an essential skill and something you will be doing regularly. Importing .stl files (or possibly other formats) may end up as a part of your workflow as well but won’t be needed if you are generating your print geometry from scratch.

At this point, you are probably tired of talking theory and preparing to model. Well, you are in luck as the next chapter, Chapter 4, Print-Ready Modeling and Scaling for Export, will have us not only thinking about what is important when creating geometry for printing but doing some modeling together!

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