Uploading Problems

Hallo everyone,

Im new her and I want a model printed, but I have a model in .skp and .123dx files. how can I converd this to the right file to upload it correctly?

(sorry for the bad english)

kind regards Bernlef

Hi Bernlef,

Export as an STL file. Oh and, stay under one million triangles.

Your written English looks pretty good! Just a few minor errors. Here's what I use to help me write with better grammar. It's called Grammarly. It can and can be found here. I use the free version.

thanks for the compliments and for the quick reaction. To moddel I use sketchup and 123d desine. unfortunately that is not in STL. witch program does this and wear can i dowload it?

kind regards

You can export as an STL from Sketchup but you'll need to install a plugin for that. However, Sketchup 2016 lets one export an OBJ, which can be uploaded to Shapeways. Look at the following animated GIF I made showing how to export an OBJ from Sketchup.
For 123 Design you can export as an STL like this.

Thanks for the explenation. I Will look at iT as soon as possible. Again, thank you verry mutch!!

Hello, Ihave tryed it but it failed. I can safe it with stl but he cant upload it. im using 123d disign. here is a picture of it:

i hope this works.
What is going wrong?

How big is that stl file ? "No geometry found" would either mean that it was empty, or it contains something flat without any thickness to it. (Get meshlab or meshmixer to preview your stl file - I used to recommend netfabb studio basic but its free download appears to have been removed for good now that it got bought up by Autodesk)

it is 156 kb, In my model i have a thikness with 3mm. can it be this is to thin?

3mm is thick enough for all materials, anyway anything thicker than 0mm should get past that step. Time to look at that model in one of the programs I mentioned - or try exporting to OBJ on the off chance that there is something broken in the STL export code or settings of your software.

thank you for the quick reaction. i wil try again.

Another thing you can try is uploading your STL or OBJ to Microsoft's Cloud repair service found here. If the service can repair the file it will let you download it as a 3MF, which doesn't work with Shapeways. However, you can use Microsoft's free 3D Builder software to convert it back to OBJ or STL, which you can then upload to Shapeways.

If you can't get it working you can send it to me in a private message and I can take a look at it if you'd like.

Kroeker, Autodesk is still offering the free version of Netfabb, see here.

Good to know that netfabb is still available and they only changed the download procedure (again), thanks.

Hi Burnluve,


There is a SketchUp plugin that you can download from here that way you can repair your files and convert them to STL or Obj. Since, SketchUp is not very good with making models that are 3D printable.