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

Modeling and scale

In general, I recommend that everyone model at full scale in SketchUp. The fact is, SketchUp does not care what size you model something. The only thing that matters is what size your model is when you export the .stl file.

In some cases, this might not make much of a difference. If you are modeling a replacement knob for your stove or a pencil cup for your desk, you will likely just model at full size, then export the model, as is. If you plan to model something large, like your house or a spaceship, then you will want to model full size, then scale the model down before exporting.

Let’s hop into the example model for this chapter and see how scaling works (if you don’t have 3D Printing with SketchUp Chapter 4 – Scaling.skp, now would be a great time to download it from the 3D warehouse: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/9cd6e76f-cb4a-454b-acdc-1c5f1cadb9ce/3D-Printing-with-SketchUp-Chapter-4-Scaling):

  1. Open 3D Printing with...