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Solved Scale problem Sketchup to MatterControl

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by PickyBiker, Jan 6, 2015.

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  1. PickyBiker

    PickyBiker Active Member

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    I'm new to 3d printing and just figured out how to make my first item for print. I used Sketchup to create an object that is about 5" tall and I export it to STL. When I load it into MatterControl it is MUCH smaller than that. It looks to be a length of less than a half inch.

    Can someone help me understand what is wrong?

    Sketchup 2015, MatterControl 1.2, Win 7.
     
    #1 PickyBiker, Jan 6, 2015
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    One is metric units and the other SAE (mm versus inches I bet).

    If you are going to design in 3D might I suggest something a bit better than Sketchup?
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Jan 6, 2015
  3. PickyBiker

    PickyBiker Active Member

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    Mark, I bet you are correct about SAE vs Metric, I'll check on that. As far as something better than sketchup, 3D design software, that is a wild and woolly space. Could you offer up a couple suggestions for specific software that is either free or < $150 ?

    I don't plan to do this professionally and would not be able to afford something that costs more than that.
     
    #3 PickyBiker, Jan 6, 2015
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If you can get the student discount I would suggest SolidWorks, but otherwise... not sure I can point out much in the cheap/free frame (there are lots out there, but I have not played with them).

    Bound to be someone else (or several) on here that can chime in :)
     
    #4 mark tomlinson, Jan 6, 2015
  5. PickyBiker

    PickyBiker Active Member

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    You were right mark. 5 mm is a LOT smaller than 5". Thanks for the help.
    Can't get a student discount so SolidWorks seems out of the question at the moment.

    How do I mark this thread as Resolved?
     
    #5 PickyBiker, Jan 6, 2015
  6. k1e1v1i1n

    k1e1v1i1n Active Member

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    Edit the name of the thread it will be there.
     
    #6 k1e1v1i1n, Jan 6, 2015
  7. PickyBiker

    PickyBiker Active Member

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    Got it... Thanks!
     
    #7 PickyBiker, Jan 6, 2015
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Try some of the other free alternatives like Blender. I know others have said each one tends to be better for certain types of models...
     
    #8 mark tomlinson, Jan 6, 2015
  9. mediaguru

    mediaguru Member

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    Sketchup is excellent... at least, for some things. My mother used to be a landscape architect and her firm used it for all CAD work. It was also the software of choice used for the mockups / visualizations presented to our school board for the multimillion dollar school construction/upgrade projects. In short... the fact that it is free is astounding. Software like this used to cost $5000 about 20 years ago. It can be an amazing tool... for the right purposes. And those purposes tend to be very specific: architecture and inanimate objects. Not multi-part precision machinery. And certainly not anything organic (humans, animals, etc.)

    if you are a student, you can get a variety of Autodesk software for free (which is also astounding!)...

    I have used Blender, and it is also an amazing tool for the price (nothing!), but the learning curve and the time required to create things are infinitely higher than SketchUp. Much better tool for certain things, though. I used it to create some characters for my mobile phone/tablet game app I am programming, using the sculpting tools. Also used some of the cloth tools in it. Sculpting and cloth are the types of things simply not possible with Sketchup.

    For human characters and animation, I use Daz Studio (or used to use Poser, but Daz is free); for architecture I always use Sketchup; everything else could be Blender. Are there better tools out there? Sure. But not for free, and providing the same speed/ease of workflow.
     
    #9 mediaguru, Jan 6, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 8, 2015
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