Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

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Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by philipy » Sat Aug 15, 2020 8:38 am

It was suggested that I might like to produce a SketchUp Masterclass thread. I'm no SU Master, but for a start I'll show how I would produce a simple window frame. There are many ways of doing most things, and some of them may be easier or quicker than mine, but I'm not a Master!

Before doing any drawing, this post will hopefully explain how to download it and get it set up.

First of all, SketchUp used to produce two versions, SketchUp Pro and SketchUp Make. The Pro version was paid for but the Make version was free to download and use and it's limitations are irrelevant for the sort of use we make of it. When they isued the SU 2017 update, it would only work properly on more sophisticated graphics than my PC at the time posessed so I stuck with SU Make 2016 which still works perfectly well. However, in 2018 they decided to discontinue the download versions and take everything "in the cloud", this of course requires that you have a solid 'net connection to be able to use it. I suggest that SU Make 2016 or 2017 is more than adequate and works wherever you are.

So to download it go to: https://forums.sketchup.com/t/sketchup- ... inks/37503
Then click the line "[ I do agree bindingly to use the SketchUp Make version for non-commercial purposes only ]", Choose the x64 or x32 version and download, save the file, and double click to start the installation.

Install it to the default location and the first thing it will do is show a splash screen telling you to try the cloud version, ignore that and click the "Start using SketchUp" button at the bottom RH corner. It will then tell you to choose a template from the dropdown list at the top of the screen. There are various options including dims in both feet and inches and metric for a number of different uses. I suggest using the last option "3D Printing - Millimetres for Maker" , you can always change it later if you want. The window will disappear and be replaced by a new window showing the 3 coloured axes and a black wireframe cuboid carrying the label 'Makerbot Replicator 2X'. Unless you want to draw within this frame, you can simply delete it. Click it, and it will turn blue and then simply hitting your delete button will get rid of it and we can get down to actually drawing!

First though, a quick explanation of the buttons at the top of the screen. Hover your mouse over the icon at any time and a tooltip appears, but for reference this is the list:
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1) Select
2) Eraser
3) Lines - the adjacent down arrowhead allows for drawing either straight lines or freehand.
4) The Arc button has several variants accessed by clicking the down arrowhead to the side.
5) The circle or square Shapes draws that shape and also has a couple of other options under it's arrow.
6) PushPull -The rectangle with the up arrow on top is one that we'll use a lot and drags a face up, down or sideways to create or alter a 3-D shape.
7) The two arcs with a red arrow is the Off-set tool and we'll come back to that.
8 ) The 4-headed arrow is the Move tool and slides selected items around without affecting everything else.
9) The two arc shaped arrows Rotate a selected object. (This is a horrible tool to try to use and I avoid it as much as possible!).
10) The solid grey square inside a red square is the Scale button and is very useful at times.
11) Tape Measure has several functions, from simply measuring a distance on the drawing to setting guide points and lines, to actually resizing the object.
12 & 13) The next 2 buttons we don't need at this point.
14) The red and green swirl Orbit button is very useful and allows you to spin the entire drawing in any direction.
15) The hand Pans the drawing in any direction,
16) The magnifying glass Zooms in and out.
17) Extents - The magnifying glass with three arrows, automatically zooms the drawing to fit the window.
18) SketchUp 3-D Warehouse - not much use for our purposes.
19) SketchUp Extension Warehouse.
20) Solid Inspector2. This is not part of the default tool set but needs to be downloaded from the Extension Warehouse. It is not infallible but is a useful tool for looking for errors in the drawing. Download and install it and this new icon appears on the toolbar. Then at any point in a project just click the icon and a window will pop up indicating errors. Download from: https://extensions.sketchup.com/search/ ... 0inspector

A second Extension is much more important ( and so far has never failed me) and that is the stl exporter. Download and install this and it appears in the main File Menu. Click it and it automatically exports the stl file ready to put straight into your slicer to produce the x3g file for the printer.
Download from: https://extensions.sketchup.com/search/?q=stl%20export

OK, if you've waded through this, with any luck you should be ready to start drawing. :D
Philip

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by ge_rik » Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:28 pm

I'm looking forward to seeing how it should be done. Thanks for responding to the challenge, Philip.

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by philipy » Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:39 pm

For comparison with Rik's Tinkercad Blog, I'll start by drawing roughly the same window frame.

First use the Orbit button to arrange the axes with the origin towards the LH side of your screen and the solid blue axis vertical and solid red axis running from L to R.

Next select the Shapes button to a draw a rectangle: position the Pencil on the origin, click and hold the Left mouse button and draw a shape to the right, then let go, the size doesn't matter because in the "Dimensions" box, now type "45,45" ( the comma is important ) and hit Enter. The shape you drew will change to a square 45 x 45.

Screenshot 2020-08-14 16.30.11.png
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Hit the "Zoom Extents" button and it will zoom in to fill the screen. Now use the Orbit tool to angle the square more towards you so that you have a reasonable view of the square.

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Use the Select arrow button to select the top square by clicking on it anywhere and it will change to a speckled blu-ish colour, now use the PushPull tool to pull it up. Enter 3 into the box and hit enter. You now have a solid slab 45x45x3mm
NOTE: SketchUp can sometimes give unexpected results if you try to do several things on a 2-dimensional surface and then extrude them one at a time.

Screenshot 2020-08-15 14.03.25.png
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Select the top face of the square then click on the Offset tool, click on the edge of the square and a small red dot will appear, drag the cursor towards the centre and let go, type 5 into the Distance box and hit Enter. The new square will move to be a symetrical 5mm inside the outer border. Pick the Select tool and click anywhere outside the block to deselect everything.

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OK, so now we have the outer frame of the window marked out and we need to start on the actual glazing frames, using the Offset tool as before. Start by selecting the inner square, then use the Offset tool to click on the border and drag inwards, release mouse, enter 3 into the box and Enter. A new square appears, 3mm inside the previous one.

Screenshot 2020-08-15 14.15.14.png
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Using the Tape Measure tool, click on one corner of the inner square, let go and move along an adjacent edge to the next corner, it should say 29.0000mm.

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Now we need to add the central dividing frames, which should be 3mm wide to match the outer. So 29 -3=26mm, divided by 2 gives us two panes each 13mm wide. Using the Tape Measure tool, click on one corner of the inner square and drag along one edge, type 13 in the length box, hit Enter, and a small mark will appear on the edge at 13mm from the corner. Go to the corner at the other end and repeat. You should now have two Guide marks on the edge, 3mm apart. Repeat this for one of the other sides.

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Select the Line tool ( pencil), place it on one of the guidemarks and drag it towards the opposite side. As long as you go in an apporoximately perpendicular direction it will maintain the line until you get to the opposite side and will draw an indicator line in the coour of the axis. ie. L-R it will be red, F-B it will be green. When the pencil gets to the opposite side a small box will pop up saying on "On edge", so let go and a black line will be drawn.

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Repeat this for all four Guide points.

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OK, nearly there! Using the Eraser tool, click on each of the lines that are closing off the ends of the inner frames.

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Select the outer frame face, then use the Push Pull tool to pull it UP, 2mm.

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Now, one at a time, Select the individual panes and using the PushPull push them DOWN by 3mm, the infill should disappear leaving the frame with 4 openings.

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Now click the Solid Inspector (looks like a globe at the RH end of the toolbar) and it should say "No errors - All is shiny"!

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Save your drawing and then part way down the File menu you should see Export STL.

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Select that and export the file, then run it through your slicer...


Screenshot 2020-08-15 14.42.33.png
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Job done.
Philip

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by ge_rik » Sun Aug 16, 2020 9:33 am

You make it look so easy, Philip. I wonder why, when I tried the same method (ie pulling up a solid slab and the pushing down the panes), the resultant window wouldn't print. Maybe it was because I had to export it as a Collada file rather than a .STL?

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by philipy » Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:24 pm

ge_rik wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 9:33 am You make it look so easy, Philip. I wonder why, when I tried the same method (ie pulling up a solid slab and the pushing down the panes), the resultant window wouldn't print. Maybe it was because I had to export it as a Collada file rather than a .STL?
Tbh, when I was going through this and trying to get the various screenshot illustrations, I learned a couple of things that I hadn't realised before, including the comment I made about unexpected results when drawing multiple objects in 2-D and then extruding individually. The first time through I did exactly that because I thought it would be easier to explain if the whole thing could be seen on one flat sheet. Then I first pulled up the outer frame and then the glazing frames, but when I looked at the back of it, the glazing frames were hollow with no back surface! Now where have I seen that before? :lol:

I'm not sure about the Collada thing , I've never needed to try that, although I have imported Collda files without too many problems that I recall.
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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by Andrew » Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:13 pm

This looks really helpful, thank you!

I've not got any immediate plans for 3D printing (although I think I should be able to access a printer if the world of work ever goes back to normal...) but I am thinking of dusting off my 2D drawing skills to do a little more laser cutting. Working for a University I think I might qualify for the free version of Autocad, but I reckon perhaps I'll choose Sketchup so that I can pick brains on here!

Cheers,

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by MRail » Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:18 pm

In the same manner, interested to have a look.
Installed the recommended SketchUp Make, and it appears to be a 30 day free trial.
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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by -steves- » Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:33 pm

Any chance of anyone doing one if these for Autodesk Fusion 360, which is also free for non commercial use.
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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by philipy » Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:39 pm

MRail wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:18 pm In the same manner, interested to have a look.
Installed the recommended SketchUp Make, and it appears to be a 30 day free trial.
If you installed the '2016 Make', it's free. If you picked the '2016 Pro' it reverts to Make and becomes free after the 30 day trial. They are all unsupported now anyway so they probably wouldn't lt you buy it even if you wanted too!
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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by Trevor Thompson » Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:35 am

Hi

Interesting information.

Does this mean that Sketchup has a limited life expectancy-if it is unsupported that is?

The Fusion 360 thread was also interesting. I hadn't realised that Sketchup worked in triangles - but it does explain why circles come out as 28 sided objects by default.

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by philipy » Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:32 am

Trevor Thompson wrote: Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:35 am
Does this mean that Sketchup has a limited life expectancy-if it is unsupported that is?

but it does explain why circles come out as 28 sided objects by default.
I guess it does, although there are I believe many people still using the downloaded versions. There was quite an outcry on their support forum back in 2018 when they announced it was going cloud only. I haven't seen any 'end of life' dates.

You can change the default number of segents in a circle to whatever you like, but only at the beginning of a drawing. So you can set it to say 96, or 196, or whatever number takes your fancy. Obviously, the larger the finished, printed object is, the more obvious the segmentation is, so the greater the number of segments you need to disguise it.
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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by philipy » Wed May 19, 2021 3:57 pm

I have just come across a potentially very useful 'work around' for the old free Sketchup Make.

As was discussed on another thread, it is possible to import graphics files and then draw over them to produce a 3d drawimg for 3d printing. One of the SU limitations is the inability to to import pdf's and another limitation in the free verion is that it won't allow the import of Autocad .drg and .dxf files.

However, there is a free program called Inkscape ( do a Google search) which will open pdf's and allow the export of a vector file in Autocad formats. (It appears to be able to do a load of other things but I haven't explored them)
Now for the sneaky part: Sketchup 7 is a very old and obsolete version but is still available to download (http://www.oldversion.com/windows/googl ... -7-0-10247) and, most importantly, back in those days before Google sold it off, they allowed the import of .drg and .dxf files, which can then be saved as Sketchup ( .skp ), files. These then just need to be opened again in SU 2016 or 17 and saved, and the drawing can then be manipulated as any other SU drawing.

The first thing to do is resize the imported drawing to whatever size/scale you want, using the tape measure tool on a known dimension, to avoid confusion going forward.
Some of the shapes on the imported drawing do not always have a solid 'face' in SU initially. However this can usually be sorted by simply drawing over one of the edges and it will go solid and can then be pushed, pulled, etc.

So, because I had it handy, I did some experimenting with a Dave Watkins De Winton pdf drawing and followed the procedure outlined above . The following screenshot shows:

1) The black outlined areas are as drawn and imported.
2) The greyish blue area is a solid face.
3) The white blocks are extruded solid faces.
Screenshot 2021-05-19 15.45.19.png
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.

For full instructions see these links:
https://sketchucation.com/resources/tut ... conversion - Note: this article talks about Sketchup Pro, but the instructions are the same for the free version, you just need to do the conversion in the following link:
https://designerhacks.com/how-to-import ... thout-pro/ ( includes the download link for SU 7)
Philip

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by Ianm » Sat Nov 05, 2022 3:41 pm

Hi Philip

I followed your instructions to download the extensions for Inspecting the model and exporting to a STL file. All worked, with a bit of jiggling about as the icons disappeared from the menu bar, but are still listed under the Tools menu.

Then I followed your great and detailed instructions to draw the window frame. And hallelujah it all worked, although it took a few goes for me to get the logic of the offset into my brain - it seems more finicky that LibreCAD (and even AutoCAD from a dim and distant past). However, I now have a SKP and STL file of the window frame. I'll see if my mate with a printer (or 3) will print one off for me.

It took a while to work out that I had to select the correct template before starting to draw (in the end I settled on the 3D maker template). The first go round was a little startling when the window frame measured at 45 meters on each side! Might have taken a bit of printing. :thumbup:

Until now I have really struggled to draw shapes in Sketchup - having always done orthographic technical drawings and then imagined the shape in my nut. Now to rewatch some of the SketchUp videos which will, hopefully, make more sense now I have a slight grip on the logic of the process. :scratch:

New tricks every day with you guys helping! :study: :D
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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by philipy » Sat Nov 05, 2022 4:28 pm

Ianm wrote: Sat Nov 05, 2022 3:41 pm
It took a while to work out that I had to select the correct template before starting to draw (in the end I settled on the 3D maker template). The first go round was a little startling when the window frame measured at 45 meters on each side! Might have taken a bit of printing. :thumbup:
Glad to have helped Ian.

I have mine set to "mm architectural", but whatever works for you.

If you need to resize something, simply use the tape measure tool to measure something that you know the size of, then click, and then type the size you want in the window at the bottom RH corner of the screen. A window will pop up asking if you want to resize the model and if you say yes, it will immediately resize the whole thing proportionally.

Another tip, to work in conjunction with the resize, is that Sketchup sometimes struggles with small dims, particularly if it involves curves and circles ( it won't draw a circle of less than 0.5mm radius, for instance). So, draw it at 10x and then at the end measure a length and type in the length you want it to be.... hey presto! It works very well for things like domed rivets for example.
I routinely draw most things at x10 and then reduce at the end
Philip

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Re: Using SketchUp to produce drawings for 3-D Printing

Post by Ianm » Sat Nov 05, 2022 4:40 pm

Noted - a cunning plan.

I tried one of the other mm templates but it didn't seem to work - perhaps I may have drawn something on the template before changing it.

I'll give drawing at 10 times and then shrinking it a go. :salute:
Ian M
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