Model Is Not Manifold

I uploaded a model several months ago and updated it this week. Then noticed a mistake in one of the internal dimensions. I went back to the model made the wall thicker and now I get the same message. Model is not manifold or Upload in mm. And so on.

I redo the whole model from scratch 6 times. Same message.

BTW I'm using sketchup. Downloaded Blender but can't find any drawing or editing tools to fix my model.

Any suggestions are welcome and a definition to the manifold thing.

Thanks

Assuming you can import the file into blender, right click on the model, hit tab to enter edit mode, w, remove doubles. just in case you've got a duplicate shell issue going on making it a wall thickness of 0. additionally, shift+ctrl+alt+m while in edit mode highlights all non-manifold geometry, just hit z to go into wireframe mode first(so you can see it).

As far as manifold. Simply put, Manifold objects are objects that can exist in real life. for example: a plane in 3d modeling is just that, 2D(important note, if you create a new plane in blender and then do nothing it will register as non-manifold!). a box in 3d modeling is visually 6 2d planes that give it volume.. but if you delete one face and leave the others you suddenly have a non-manifold object because it has no volume.
Another example would be if you take a box, and intersect it with another box, its non-manifold because you have faces inside the geometry of another object. some programs can handle this one though, but it is bad design (in my humble opinion). there are a couple other ways you can get non-manifold geometry, do a web search and browse some stackexchange stuff. This is the first site I came across with a quick search http://3dprintingninja.blogspot.com/2014/07/non-manifolds-your-worst-nightmare.html

Thanks for the Blender tip. Tomorrow I will hunt down those double wall shapes and loose lines. I saw them on Sketchup. It must be that.

Hi Hiperverso,

If you can upload or make the mesh available then I can maybe help you mesh out your product correctly.

Inbox me if you want help you shouldn't have to remake the entire model the whole time.

Kind Regards
Tyron Hulley

There's also a Solid Inspector plugin for Sketchup

Yep if you're using Sketchup for 3D printing you absolutely need the Solid Inspector plugin...

Blender didn't work. Too complex. Looks too much like 3D S Max. Never understood that software. I am based on auto cad platforms. Tried to download the solid inspector but apparently I'm supposed to have a registered software and an account with Trimble to log in.

No results so far.
Any link to get this add on for a guy on a peanuts and beer budget?

So I managed to get solid inspector. What does close the mesh means in sketchup? It is the same as intersect with model or selection?

A good resource for plugins for Sketchup is Sketucation.com - needs registration but it's free.

Solid inspector will highlight areas in the model that fall foul of the rules of an object being manifold - it's a sanity check for stray/incomplete geometry.

Sounds like you have incomplete geometry - missing faces. Solid inspector will highlight this but it sometimes can be hard to see where the error is. Basically you need to fix the model and check with Solid inspector until it shows no errors - only at that point is is 'safe' to upload to Shapeways.

Getting back to 3D CAD - I agree Blender can be hard to understand, but can be a useful tool in the free software domain. It helps it is immensely powerful in all areas of 3D

However, you mention Autocad - why not check out Autodesk Fusion360 - a powerful cloud based parametric design app that encompasses the dimension driven design fostered by Sketchup, together with the organic modelling championed by Blender. It's free to students, startups and hobbyists and produces Shapeways friendly STL files as an export.

Try to fix it using https://www.MakePrintable.com and it’ll fix it automatically, there is also a SketchUp plugin that you can download from the site.