Absolute NOOB - intro & first of many questions
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:06 pm
Hello everyone.
A quick intro - a transplanted Brit living in Louisiana, I've just taken the plunge into 3D printing and designing. Lots of computer knowledge and general technical skills, but I know just about nothing about printers and design. It's a bit daunting, and the learning curve looks very steep but you have to start somewhere.
The main reason for becoming interested was that I wanted to create to solutions for home, garage and motorcycles (not necessarily in that order!)
Having set up my printer and software, I started the usual test print or two and quickly wanted to try out more useful stuff. Online I found a case for a a 150mm Mitutoyo caliper, so I downloaded the STL file.
Upon opening the file in Simplify3D , it appears on the printer bed to be about an inch or so in length, very obviously wrong. I understand that STL files don't have units built in, so how do you know how to scale up to end up with the right size? I tried scaling up from mms to inches and various related factors. After much research online I found a suggestion to scale up by 2450% but this resulted in a case twice the size on my printer bed, and 245% isn't near enough.
Had the same issue with a tiger which I used as a test print, but since it didn't have to be an exact size, I scaled up until it filled about 1/3 of the bed and called it done.
The caliper case obviously has to be a very specific size. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
Alex
A quick intro - a transplanted Brit living in Louisiana, I've just taken the plunge into 3D printing and designing. Lots of computer knowledge and general technical skills, but I know just about nothing about printers and design. It's a bit daunting, and the learning curve looks very steep but you have to start somewhere.
The main reason for becoming interested was that I wanted to create to solutions for home, garage and motorcycles (not necessarily in that order!)
Having set up my printer and software, I started the usual test print or two and quickly wanted to try out more useful stuff. Online I found a case for a a 150mm Mitutoyo caliper, so I downloaded the STL file.
Upon opening the file in Simplify3D , it appears on the printer bed to be about an inch or so in length, very obviously wrong. I understand that STL files don't have units built in, so how do you know how to scale up to end up with the right size? I tried scaling up from mms to inches and various related factors. After much research online I found a suggestion to scale up by 2450% but this resulted in a case twice the size on my printer bed, and 245% isn't near enough.
Had the same issue with a tiger which I used as a test print, but since it didn't have to be an exact size, I scaled up until it filled about 1/3 of the bed and called it done.
The caliper case obviously has to be a very specific size. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
Alex