Hi, Just had a look at the instructions on this page: https://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/sketchup_3d_printing_expo rt_to_stl_tutorial and it suggests exporting from Sketchup as .dae, then opening in Meshlab, exporting as .stl and finally opening in Accutrans to check solidity. Have just tried this and my model seems fine, but as you can also import a dae direct to Accutrans, I'm wondering if the intermediate Meshlab step is necessary? Also, the model I'm doing is fairly complex - a rose with lots of overlapping geometry in the petals. I've tried using the Union solid tools in Sketchup to turn all the petals it into one solid, but it's not working and I'm wondering whether this actually matters? What I mean is, does the 3D printing process just ignore extra internal geometry, as long as the .stl is watertight according to Accutrans?
Try an upload of a test model. SW will union boolean all the intersecting volumes into a single outersurface shell(defined surface area). I can imagine your model will have many intersecting volumes, so model a few intersecting petals for the test run upload it to SW or the netfabb cloud service to create 1 shell.
I posted the following in another thread ages ago, hope it helps: I use SketchUp all the time. I use this PlugIn to export as a stl file. To export, all you need to do is select all of the model, click Tools>Export to DXF or STL. A pop up window will open, I use Export Units>Millimetres>Ok>Export to DXF options>STL>Save as "model".stl Tom.
Thanks for the plugin link... Does the job - it did seem a bit long-winded to use two other programs. Have done a test upload and it all seems to work without having to delete the internal geometry - good news. Cheers