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 Using Solid Tools

We have spent a lot of time talking about keeping our models solid as we create geometry. Anyone familiar with SketchUp has probably asked, why not use Solid Tools to create print-ready models? This is a great point and something that we will do in this very chapter!

For those unfamiliar with Solid Tools, they are a set of tools available in any paid version of SketchUp. Solid Tools allow you to perform basic Boolean operations on solid groups. These are functions such as adding solid groups together, subtracting one from another, or finding the volume where two solids overlap. They are great tools for working with solid geometry, thus a great set of tools to have in your 3D printing toolkit.

In this chapter, we will cover these main topics:

  • Modeling from a photo
  • Using Solid Tools
  • Making solid 3D-printed connections