
These specifications will be available on the manufacturers' website.Īs an example, the following screenshot shows a partial list of design guidelines for minimum walls, wires, and details in Strong & Flexible Plastics available at As you can see, these are the minimum requirements-you should not design any feature smaller than those indicated, and usually should design most features somewhat larger. If you own a desktop printer, print resolution will depend on the nozzle size and layer resolution supported by that printer. If you're using a print service, look for technical specifications on their website. Wall thickness and other related requirements depend on the printing process, and vary according to the material choice and printer resolution. In general, detail size is smaller than wall thickness. For example, if you're printing a scale model of a house, the wall thickness would be the thickness of the structural walls, while the detail size would be how far the window trim sticks out from the wall.
#Sketchup number of segments in an arc free#
A tree branch connected at one end would be considered a free wire, while a truss strut connected on both ends is a supported wire.ĭetail size is related to wall thickness. Some examples of wires are tree branches, truss struts, and the arm of a superhero figurine. Wire thickness measures the diameter of a cylinder, and typically needs to be slightly larger than the minimum wall thickness. Wall thickness is a balance that you as a designer will optimize for each model. For this reason, even though a design may look just fine on your screen, it can break in real life if its wall thickness isn't strong enough to support it.Īt the same time, you don't want your walls to be too thick, or you'll use more material than necessary, costing you more money.

When holding your very first print, you'll likely be surprised at its size, usually by how small it is. Although physics plays no role when designing on your computer, once the design makes it out into the real world, it must abide by the laws of nature.īecause it is so easy to zoom up into any detail of your model and make it fill your screen, a very common problem new designers face is understanding the model's scale in the real world. Wall thickness is a very important concept in 3D printing. So, first a bit of high-level theory, and then we'll get to the fun part-modeling the vase in the following figure:
#Sketchup number of segments in an arc how to#
We'll learn how to overcome the dreaded missing faces problem, which happens frequently when faces are not created at the time of modeling at a small scale in SketchUp.

We will explore circles, arcs, and how changing the number of segments they are made of affects the appearance of the printed model. In this chapter, we will learn about wall thickness and some different methods to create the wall thickness you want. 3D Printing with SketchUp (2014) Chapter 4.
