Major model - railwaystation 1/87 (Sketchup)

Discussion in 'My Work In Progress' started by Gerard, Apr 20, 2013.

  1. Gerard
    Gerard Member
    At the moment I'm busy with creating a railwaystation on scale 1/87. This building excist in real (Weert the Netherlands).

    During the progress I always create a STL to lookup in Netfabb if I'm doing right. Unfortunately even after the repair there is still an issue in the tower.

    Can somebody advice how to fix? Unfortunately I made a lot of progress since the older version of the file so I don't hope I need to go back to an older file.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. FabMeJewelry
    FabMeJewelry Member
    Ik kan wel even kijken voor je als je het bestand in stl hebt :)
     
  3. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    Your model is looking pretty good. In Netfabb I applied some repairs in this order:

    - Remove Degenerate Faces (0.001mm)
    - Close All Holes
    - Fix Flipped Triangles

    This left me with the attached STL, which looks pretty good except for the peak of the tower, which ended up not hollow.

    One thing: it seems that many of your shells are aligned face-to-face. This is causing some of the holes.
    You might try overlapping the faces ever so slightly so that Netfabb and other tools can understand the geometry better.
     

    Attached Files:

  4. Gerard
    Gerard Member
    Many thanks :)

    I do several checks via Netfabb during the design. At this point I couldn't repair it anymore. Because of your help I can process further.

    @stonysmith
    I was aware that the peak of the tower will be not hollow anymore after netfabb will repair it.
    I will try to reproduce your step so I can understand it better. If I need more help I will come back in this topic. Also I will post my progress.

    @FabMeJewelry
    Dank je voor de moeite zover. Ik had inderdaad beter de STL kunnen uploaden.
     
  5. JACANT
    JACANT Well-Known Member
    The problem you have is there are many extra lines on your model. If you draw a line on a face, a new face is created on top. You need to delete all extra lines that are not required. There are also extra walls inside the walls of the tower which is confusing Netfabb.
    Take for example the Balustrade. There are extra lines between each Baluster, which are creating extra faces. If they don't create faces the extra lines will show up as holes when you open the file in Netfabb and the extra faces on top of each other show up as blue and red striped areas.
    I have repaired your skp file and the stl file
    Only one file per message.
     

    Attached Files:

  6. JACANT
    JACANT Well-Known Member
    Here is the stl file (repaired)
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Apr 20, 2013
  7. Gerard
    Gerard Member
    @Jacant

    Many thanks. I agree there are a lot of lines at the moment. I export during the process the STL to check in Netfabb if I didn't make a mistake. It isn't finished yet but it seems I can process.

    I'm using an add on in Sketchup that will delete "death" lines but not the extra lines. I think I need to do that manually.

    It is a quite difficult design. I will come back to you when I'm almost finished. Thanks a lot for all your help.
     
  8. Gerard
    Gerard Member
    My latest version of the STL is attached to this reply. Unfortunately still a warning but I can't find out why.

    I deleted a lot of lines according the advice of @Jacant

    I also used the options used by stonysmith in Netfabb.

     

    Attached Files:

  9. Gerard
    Gerard Member
    And the Sketchup file that belongs to that STL in my previous post.

    As you can see I removed a lot of lines but not all lines because I need them soon for some windows etc.
     

    Attached Files:

  10. JACANT
    JACANT Well-Known Member
    You need to stop using extra lines, they are creating faces and extra shells.
    Use the guides. Where you want a temporary line use the tape measure tool to draw it. The same as if you were drawing with the pencil. A dotted line will be created which can be hidden or shown by using 'View - Guides'. When you come to export, hide the guide lines.
    I have fixed your files
     

    Attached Files:

  11. JACANT
    JACANT Well-Known Member
    Skp file fixed. To see the Guides use 'View - Guides'
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Apr 21, 2013
  12. Gerard
    Gerard Member
    Many thanks. I will keep in mind to don't use extra lines and use the tape-measure-tool.

    Is it possible to tell me what lines you deleted?
     
  13. JACANT
    JACANT Well-Known Member
    It would be easier to compare this fixed file with your own. There may be more lines I have missed.
    https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=getfile&id=30 936&

    Just curious! Are you going to get this printed? It is going to be expensive; now it is 635cm3.

    May I suggest to keep the size down. Draw just the outside skin, with a top and bottom and windows filled in, so it is watertight and manifold.
    Export and open it in Blender. Use the Modifier - Solidify to create a thickness. then either delete the faces of the bottom and windows you do not want. in Blender. Or export, open it in Sketchup and delete the faces here. It will still be expensive
     
  14. Gerard
    Gerard Member
    Thanks JACANT. I will try to answer your questions. Hopefully it is a little bit clear because my language is Dutch and I'm writing this in English.

    Yes, I'm considering to print this item. Before I decide, there are a few challenges.

    I'm very curious about your workaround. First I will explain why I chose this method. I read the book about Sketchup and 3D printing and some forums on the internet. They adviced, when you want to hollow your design in Sketchup, for example a cube, create the cube, and use the offset-tool to create walls. Because the advice on this forum, I using now the tape measuretool instead of extra lines. Hopefully this prevent too much lines that causes errors in the design. At this moment, I only need to add windows and doors. I'm also considering to delete the roof and cut the roof from special plates you can by in modeltrain-stores.

    Because I have a copy of the genuine architectural drawings of this building it is quite easy to draw.

    It sounds like the way you describe is a little bit easier. Because I'm not familiar with that workarround I need to learn again and need to redraw the design. That will cost a lot of work and time. I have also concidered to only draw the walls one by one and print them separate and stuck them together when printed.

    It will be indeed expensive but for me, it could be worth (depending on the final price). Please keep in mind there will be much more windows what will help to reduce the price. It is a long term project.