I've got a very simple design that I'm trying to get in the ceramic option. I have tried to remain within the restrictions Shapeways lays out for Ceramic guidelines, but I can't for the life of me get my design to have the ceramic option. I'm uploading here to see if anyone can help me. I'm very very new to 3d design and Have just been trying this in sketchup. Thanks for any help and please let me know if I can upload in another way to make it easier for people to view.
Looks like its too small. Netfabb gives dimensions of 2.7mm x 3.6mm x 4.7mm. The corners all need to be filleted as well for best results. If using Sketchup, try this plugin: RoundCorner.
You're right. It's way too small. The actual dimensions are supposed to be about 9cm x 5cm x 12 cm but when I make an STL file in Meshlab, the resulting render is way too small. For some reason when I upload the .dae file I export directly from Sketchup to Shapeways, the render looks very strange and bloated and costs a fortune to print... Any thoughts here? I will check out rounded corners too. Thanks for the information.
If you choose "Inches" instead of "mm" when uploading a DAE, Shapeways will likely interpret the STL correctly. Use this plugin to export STL's directly from Sketchup: Sketchup to STL. This will save you from the DAE problems and the extra Meshlab step. ...and use this plugin to make sure the Sketchup model is "Solid" before exporting and uploading to Shapeways: Solid Inspector. The plugin highlights problems so you can fix them.
Awesome! Thank you so much for your help. I was able to upload to shapeways without it being bloated. And I will check out all those plugins you linked. Thanks again.