Exported COLLADA file from Sketchup is never accepted - Pulling my hair out.

Hi guys,

I am trying to print a 3d brain in the full color sandstone, so I cannot use an STL file (which does work fine, btw).
In sketchup, it's a solid object, in one group, and I've tried every COLLADA option that there is.

Here is what I've tried, and the error messages that I've received:

I usually get this error message:
We're unable to process this file. Check your file for errors and click 'Update File' to upload a new version.
Model failed during repair.
The final model was empty.
Perhaps it's too small?


Following up on that, I tried changing the model from mm to m. I've tried increasing the size of the model several orders of magnitude. Increasing the size of the model by a huge amount results in this (or a similar error message).

We're unable to process this file. Check your file for errors and click 'Update File' to upload a new version.
Rescale from meter to mm.
Model failed during repair. The final model was empty. Perhaps it's too small?
Rescale from meter to mm.

Increasing it more sometimes leads to messages like this!

We're unable to process this file. Check your file for errors and click 'Update File' to upload a new version.
Automatic rescale failed. Model is not within acceptable bounds in any unit. When rescaling to units in:
- millimeter, model is 53.6196 x 40.01463 x 41.97557 m
- inch, model is 1361.93787 x 1016.37158 x 1066.17932 m
- meter, model is 53619.60156 x 40014.62891 x 41975.56641 m

Ahah, who cares if this thing is the size of the earth in sketchup??? As long as Shapeways can figure it out, I'm happy, but, alas, no. Reducing it by 100x, does at least result in *something,* but it's not useful as can be seen in the semi-successful-upload screenshot.

What I don't understand is why it isn't working. It opens correctly in both Meshlab and blender (I don't know how to use them, but it does open correctly in them), and it displays in the mac preview window - so why isn't it working???

I've attached the sketchup file for you guys to check out - not much point in attaching failed COLLADA files, but I'll attach that last one just in case you want to see one. That one was with some of the weirder export options selected (export both faces, etc).

Please help.

-Frederick

I opened your dae file in Meshlab (freeware) and the problem is a majority of your file is inside out. The pieces you see in your render are the only pieces that aren't inverted. And they are mostly doubled up (after flipping normals, exporting obj, importing into netfabb I see extra triangles). So here is a dae from meshlab, after inverting normals and scaling down by .01 to make it uploadable. Here's the uploaded link as well https://www.shapeways.com/model/1943044/skull-collapsed.html ?li=aeTabs

Ignore the product name, I was helping with another model today and just updated that item.

Wow, thank you for getting back so quickly.

Looking at my model in sketchup, I definitely had the faces flipped. I've flipped them the other way, and re-exported it in a way that won't produce duplicate triangles. It is also the correct size (~8.5cm).
It still won't upload. Can you check this one out?

I'm really trying to get to the bottom of this because I will want to do this several times and am way more comfortable in sketchup than Meshlab or Blender.

Thanks again.

GOT IT:

I examined my own file (attached in previous post) in Blend and found that it still had two faces, despite me turning that COLLADA option off.

Following that line of troubleshooting, I found this thread: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/sketchup/cw5c OoUFo2U, which indicated that Sketchup will double up the faces in the COLLADA export if they are both painted (they were) - EVEN with the "export both faces" option off. It's a bug in my opinion.

Anyway, I "painted" the whole thing back to the default color (no color), and tried to re-upload. It worked! I think that it was uploading an extremely thin shell everytime and that is why it was failing so miserably.

Thanks for noticing the double-wall thing, that was key.

-Frederick

I'm not sure why your file isn't working. I imported it into Meshlab (I don't have sketchup nor remember how to use it) and reexported out a dae to get these results http://shpws.me/sAr8 Hopefully someone that is experienced with sketchup and help you more.

Ah I see you found the solution. Awesome!