Would appreciate the help in understanding how to add sprues or spruess ( Not sure about the spelling) to an assembly stl file to turn it into a single unit so that 3D printing is possible. Thank you. Louis
Making part trees, or sprues is a great solution. There are several ways to do this. I have posted video tutorials that give an overview of one method, along with an intro to some of the free tools often used in 3D printing. This is not everything, but it should get you up and running. Model Grouping for 3D Printing Part 1 - Meshlab Model Grouping for 3D Printing Part 2 - SketchUp Model Grouping for 3D Printing Part 3 - Blender If you'd like to learn more, there are other tutorials (moslty for SketchUp) available on my YouTube channel, 40wdmedia, and I teach classes about 3D printing through Skillshare. Those classes are usually in NY, and sometimes on the west coast (LA/SF), but an online version is in the works.
Thank you Aaron for your reply> Very helpful. I would like to send you a copy of my file. Please let me know what email address to use. Thanks again, Louis
How do you tell / how do you decide how big a sprue should be? I have a bunch of small (30 mm x 25 mm x 7 mm) items. I put them together as one STL. Before exporting the STL I connected them with a sprue, but is there any way to determine *before* printing it, how thick the sprue should be? Currently I'm finding out by trial and error.