Tips for sketchup/3d printing

[Anoptimistprime]

Also shapeways likes the .bae thingy files that sketch up uses so it's easy enough

[Rhys]

Yeah, I totally agree with that ^

Sketchup is simple to use, has a parts library and is very compatible with shapeways. Oh and it's free.

[josh]

Rhys have you seen the shapeways blog? your cluster chassis is on it. And I forgot to thank you for the valve pieces, I got them the other day, thanks

[Rhys]

Haha! Awesome, good spot Josh.

[peterwaller]

Having found DesignCad 3D a little heavy going to produce the wheel I have just downloaded Sketchup 3D and it does seem a lot easier to get started in.
I havent yet tried a dimensional drawing but I must admit the way it tells you when you are on a surface or an axis solves a lot of the problems I was having before and the push/pull command is brilliant.
Perhaps I should have taken notice of your comments earlier but I was so comfortable with DesignCad 2D I didn't want to change and the thought of learning from scratch gets more daunting as you get older. I think I will try my first robot in 3D using Sketchup and see if it proves as intuative as it seems.

[philippos]

anyone know if theres anyway to calculate the weight of your 3dmodel?

[josh]

volume*density, which I think is 0.7g/cm3

[philippos]

thanks, and where can i see the volume?

[josh]

The datasheet for the material is here: http://www.shapeways.com/topics/udesign ... 8_en__.pdf

[philippos]

i mean: is there anyway to see the volume, while im working on the model in sketchup?