netfabb

Hey,

Probably a dumb question, but in netfabb, I duplicate my part because I am doing earrings. So I select the part and duplicate, so now I have two.

I select them both, export....but when I upload to SW there is only the 1 part. And when I open the file again in netfabb, there is only the 1 part.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get both parts exported?

At this time, that is a "Pro" feature. <frown>

There is one (ugly) workaround:

1) Duplicate the first shell. (note: there is an option to Mirror one of the shells - might be handy)
2) Position the two shells so that they are not touching.
3) Export both shells separately, but use the STL-Ascii option (note: the files will be BIG)
4) Merge the two files:
4a) Use some kind of text editor to append the two files together
4b) or.. at a windows command line: copy file1.stl+file2.stl file3.stl
5) Re-open the merged file with Netfabb
6) You will get a message "Shall separate shells become separate?" - answer NO
7) Save as STL-Binary (making it smaller)

Appears to be either a bug, or a limitation of the free version. What you can do is save the single model as ascii STL, shift along one axis, save again under a different name, and then combine the two files outside of netfabb using a text editor (also change the name on the solid...endsolid lines encapsulating the second part). Or do all the work in the text editor - duplicate the single object, and then change all the x coordinates of the second one with a suitable search-and-replace)
When you then read the combined file into netfabb, it should recognize two solids and ask if these should stay separate - you can then check that the gap between them is sufficient. Unfortunately you will run into the original problem again if you now try to save this as binary stl, so you will have to upload the ascii one (zipped if necessary to stay below 64mb)

EDIT: Bah, beaten 'cause I waited too long for my test case to upload. Answering "no" to the "separate" question seemed to do ugly things to my model, but I realize now that I had them still overlapping.

Wow you're right, that is ugly. But thanks for the help.

Another option is to open in any 3D modeling program (like Sketchup), duplicate, and export again.

@mkroker: you don't have to rename the second shell. It works just fine if they are named the same. But, as you mentioned, you REALLY want the two shells separated by a bit of distance.. Netfabb really goofs ups when two (or more) triangles are identical.

@denali3ddesign: I've had several 'name-brand' drawing tools foul up (run out of memory) when trying to merge multiple shells with high triangle counts. Somehow, doing it this way in Netfabb seems to be a bit more stable (and usually quicker).

With my earrings, I join them as one object in Blender with ctrl J. They are still separate meshes, but one "object." Netfabb and SW deal with them fine.