Sketchup Plugin - please test!

Hi all,

I came across the two plugins for Google Sketchup:

Manifold

https://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=218691

From the description:

Solid inspector

https://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=30 504

From the description:

They both sound quite useful. Are there any seasoned Sketchup users here who could give them a try and let me know how well it works for Shapeways?

Thanks!

Bart

I couldn't use Sketchup for 3D printing without Solid Inspector...its a must-have, imo.

Manifold works on simple models, but not very well on anything where an automated solution would really help. I have yet to find any plugin for automatically fixing errors that works well - its seems to be hard for software to figure out what faces to keep, and which to delete...plus they can take a looooong time to run.

There is one plugin called Cleanup (by the same author as Solid Inspector, so its a good one) that is very useful to clean messy models, but it doesn't do all the work for you.

It looks like you have to become a member to download the files.

Yes, its a free membership, and the plugins are free as well

I too will reccommend the Solid Inspector plug-in, without it Sketchup would be near impossible to use for Shapeways.

Thanks for your help!

Bart

Not just free, but an extremely valuable resource. There are tons of tutorials, guides, plugins and active users.

I should clarify, donations are gladly accepted by the authors of 'free' plugins. I make a practice of donating when using a plugin on a commercial/paid project.

For example, here's the donation page for Thomthom, the author of Solid Inspector.



And yes, what twopounder said

I tried Manifold out on one of my Sketchup models in progress... Went outside to get some food, came back, and saw that Sketchup had crashed. :laughing: At this point, I think an automatic manifold-creator is just one of those things that just isn't there yet. It's one of those areas where planning, effort, and prevention are better than a barrel of cure.

The Solid Inspector seems to work okay, but I think it's giving false positives. It circles thin air and objects that don't appear to have any problems. I've run health checks and everything comes out fine.

It does help a lot with the problems it does find though.

I've never had a false positive...usually you have to zoom waay in to see the problem.

How do you run a health check?