Need Help! bobcad saving in .stl for 3D printer gone wonkey


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    Default bobcad saving in .stl for 3D printer gone wonkey

    I drew up and saved a part in stl to be 3D printed , which worked out great, part to size I drew it in.
    Drew up another part , saved it as a STL and when I brought it into my 3D printer program I could barely see it on the printer table. I didn't change any settings in BobCad. The "settings part and settings default" are all marked "inches" .
    I think it is some how switching to mm when going to printer ?????
    Any ideas? I've had this happen before on somebody else's part that was drawn to scale in Fusion 360 but was way smaller then his original drawing when brought into the printer program.
    using V30to scale

    Thanks, Rj

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    Last edited by rjmorel; 09-14-2017 at 11:42 AM.


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    Quote Originally Posted by rjmorel View Post
    I drew up and saved a part in stl to be 3D printed , which worked out great, part to size I drew it in.
    Drew up another part , saved it as a STL and when I brought it into my 3D printer program I could barely see it on the printer table. I didn't change any settings in BobCad. The "settings part and settings default" are all marked "inches" .
    I think it is some how switching to mm when going to printer ?????
    Any ideas? I've had this happen before on somebody else's part that was drawn to scale in Fusion 360 but was way smaller then his original drawing when brought into the printer program.
    using V30to scale

    Thanks, Rj
    Hi Rj,
    So first to start, stl's dont carry any "unit of measure" information... just dumb "units"...

    So something about the situation is assuming a unit of measure.

    So bobcad's internals i "think" are working in the metric system (most cad etc)

    If i "open" bobcads exports in some other programs, they open as an mm file. I can "import" them into an inches doc to get what i want...

    With that said, here are a couple things to try, since i dont have your printer.

    1. Look for an "import" as opposed to an open, in the printers interface.

    2. Try setting a custom unit in bobcad before the export. So settings-part-units-custom... try 1 unit equals 0.0394... (or vise versa) to see if that affects the models scale in the printer. (Aside from looking deeper at printers settings for scale factors etc)

    3. Bobcad exports binary stls. It "shouldnt" affect this, but who knows. There is a program installed with predator you could try. It is called "stlfix" in the program files (x86) folder-predator software- (subfolder "vcnc" or something like that. Not currently at my computer) try open an stl then do a save as and select ascii stl as type and see if that file makes a difference...

    4. Lastly, just set machine as mm and cut that way. That would be the fastest way to get setup without having someone there to help you track down the disparity.



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    Default Re: bobcad saving in .stl for 3D printer gone wonkey

    Lol.... "cutting with your 3d printer!"

    Well damn...



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    Default Re: bobcad saving in .stl for 3D printer gone wonkey

    Thanks Burrman, after working with the BC support guy it's printing the part to scale now. Don't know what I did to this drawing solid but we did a translate, scale at 25.4 and it came into the printer the correct size. It was all drawn in inches so I don't know why the printer was saying it was in mm? Thanks, Rob



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    Quote Originally Posted by rjmorel View Post
    Thanks Burrman, after working with the BC support guy it's printing the part to scale now. Don't know what I did to this drawing solid but we did a translate, scale at 25.4 and it came into the printer the correct size. It was all drawn in inches so I don't know why the printer was saying it was in mm? Thanks, Rob
    That cool you got it working Rj....

    And just to help you think about it, what you have described and the "solution" was as if the part WAS METRIC, BUT being read as "inches"... so you scaled it up.

    It's common with stl's to be either or, out of whack like that. It mostly happens in translations and unit changes...

    If you want to dig the process to track it down, we can. But it could take some time. If you are good to go, then onward!



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bobcad saving in .stl for 3D printer gone wonkey

bobcad saving in .stl for 3D printer gone wonkey