Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Hi all,

I'm very new to this whole process. I modeled an item in Sketchup, exported to an STL file and read it into MC. Stepping through the generated layers, I see one that is really wacky (tech term ) and I want to delete that one layer, can/how do I do it?

Jim

Not really, all you can do is play with slicing parameters. Can you post a screenshot? Maybe we can help more.

SketchUp is a bad tool for building things to be printed, it's way too easy to generate geometry that won't slice well.
I'd recommend the free version of Fusion 360 or OnShape, but I don't mind my stiff being in the cloud.

I thought there was possibly some temporary gcode file built before the actual printing begins. Seems like there should be someplace that the data is available...hmmm. I tried Fusion but the 'cloud' is too much of a pain with super slow internet speeds. Thanks.

There is a gcode file and you can save it. But editing out an entire layer is not trivial. It can be done but you probably won't be happy with the results and it depends on other slicer nuances and configuration. I manually combine gcode files but i have good reason to do this. Otherwise I'd verify the model. Or Prost a screenshot so we can see what you ae talking about.

This is on 1 slice of 746. Located about 140 slices from the beginning. Where is the temp file? Extent, etc. The red stop sign is the culprit.

Jim

If it's in an area where it's tolerable to duplicate a preceding or subsequent layer, you can just replace the lines between the G1 Z[the layer you want to replace] and the G1 Z[the next layer] with a copy of the corresponding lines from the layer you can tolerate duplicating. Ideally, start with a well-conditioned STL by using something other than SketchUp and considering running the file through Netfabb or similar repair utility.

Well, I'm giving it a shot. I saw where MC can export the gcode. Notepad++ does a nice job of formatting the data. I blew out the offending layer, and am running it as gcode. We'll see what it looks like in about 8-9 hours.

Jim

I'm going to bet you'll have a bit of a void there. It looked like a single point with an overly large E value, or perhaps it was a graphical glitch (I've had more than a few with it), rendering a point and dropping a decimal on size.

It'll be interesting, and a good learning opportunity. MC's layout is pretty good, but 'foreign' to me. I've been using Mach3 for years on my CNC mill. Most of my experience was with Mastercam years ago, when I was rewriting the 'posts' for CNC mills, lathes, plasma, etc. So, a little slow on the uptake but I'll try to keep up. I guess I didn't sense the bad vibes with SketchUp as I was researching 3D printing. But as one commented about keeping "his stiff" in or out of the cloud, I definitely would keep mine 'out' of a cloud.

Jim

Burley wrote:It'll be interesting, and a good learning opportunity. MC's layout is pretty good, but 'foreign' to me. I've been using Mach3 for years on my CNC mill. Most of my experience was with Mastercam years ago, when I was rewriting the 'posts' for CNC mills, lathes, plasma, etc. So, a little slow on the uptake but I'll try to keep up. I guess I didn't sense the bad vibes with SketchUp as I was researching 3D printing. But as one commented about keeping "his stiff" in or out of the cloud, I definitely would keep mine 'out' of a cloud.

Jim

I might try Blender, at least as a post-processing step for sketchup stuff, if not the entire design process, as it has a plug-in that will do things like scanning for non-manifold surfaces, overhangs, inverted faces, and a couple other 3D printing specific issues, and is free, while keeping your stuff out of the cloud.

If you're a Windows user, you might want to look into DesignSpark Mechanical. It's got a work flow that's very similar to SketchUp. DSM is essentially SpaceClaim tweaked to only save as either native (proprietary) files, or STLs. There's a forum member here (Hi Jim!) that's put together some nice tutorial vids for it - the links for them currently escape me...

g.

I certainly appreciate the help and advice you guys have come up with. The 'operation' worked fine, but the patient died

The wall thickness of my design was too thick, and I need to get my head wrapped around the workflow better. I just ran the Sketchup file through Autoconverter then through Meshmixer, and then again through MC. Quite a few errors were picked off, but I can still see some fragmented lines as I step through the generated layers. So, next step is to rebuild it with Fusion, and see the differences. Thanks again.

Jim