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I have a 3D printer and after learning of blender (and rebuilding my computer to handle it properly) I delved into 3D design for table top mini's. I'm using Blender 2.90 currently. The object in question does fit on the printer bed that I'm using (a monoprice III v.2).

enter image description here

I've created an image that will function as the base of a tower I'm designing but for the life of me I cannot get it to print. That means either a, the 3D print software I'm using is in error, or the more likely b, I've done something with the file that is causing problems.

When I load the file as a STL the print software doesn't show it with levels.

Here's a link to the file if anyone wishes to take a crack at it.

Any help would be appreciated.

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    $\begingroup$ Hi and welcome :) What exactly is the problem? Please clarify your question with more details, images, etc.. blender comes with a 3dprint toolbox addon that helps point out basic errors also. Running those checks and post the results as an edit to your Q, would be helpful. Thanks :) $\endgroup$ – Timaroberts♦ Oct 20 '20 at 12:30
  • $\begingroup$ That google drive link is private it seems $\endgroup$ – marcellothearcane Oct 20 '20 at 13:17
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, try this. $\endgroup$ – Wacky Oct 20 '20 at 14:52
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    $\begingroup$ Hi :) please use Blend-Exchange for blend files in the future, ( you can edit it into your Q) this ensures that links don't break and maintains usefulness for future users. Thanks :) $\endgroup$ – Timaroberts♦ Oct 20 '20 at 14:58
  • $\begingroup$ The most likeliest issue is geometry with zero thickness, holes or self-intersections. $\endgroup$ – Robert Gützkow♦ Oct 20 '20 at 17:52
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It's a curious model. I have 2.83 and the file opened fine, no obvious problems. Export to STL appeared to go well. Meshmixer is also happy with the structure.

The model appears to export at 0.11 mm diameter. My first move was to increase scale to 2540, a common number for inches to millimeter or the reverse, I can't recall. Still too tiny, but when using a scale factor of 25400, the model becomes 29 mm in diameter and 5 mm high.

tiny model

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm curious as to why that happened--the model is 4.5 inches across (using the old imperial units since I'm an American :p ), but I double checked the conversion rate online and its diameter should had been 114.3 mm. Not sure what's causing the difference in size when opening but that might be my problem there. As for the model it's suppose to have stackable parts on top of it so you can see miniature figures when playing Dungeons & Dragons. $\endgroup$ – Wacky Oct 21 '20 at 3:47
  • $\begingroup$ @Wacky if you select the object and type C.object.dimensions into the Python console it returns Vector((0.11432980000972748, 0.11439290642738342, 0.020091524347662926)). So the data is stored in meters no matter what the interface is showing according to the unit system selected. If you export it in STL format, the unit for the values stored in the file should be 1 meter. I think it's just a matter of importing it correctly to other software or scaling it accordingly if the software does not handle the units correctly. $\endgroup$ – Martynas Žiemys Oct 21 '20 at 9:22
  • $\begingroup$ I converted it to metric and saved the file again and that seemed to work. I don't know what happened software-wise, but it loaded properly and I saved it to gcode. I then printed the file and it turned out well. I'll post a photo this weekend when I have time. Thank you all for the help! $\endgroup$ – Wacky Oct 22 '20 at 13:10
  • $\begingroup$ Can't seem to get my old phone to talk to my computer to upload the file for some reason--will work on that later. As for Blender files and unit formats, I kept it metric for the second level and transferred it to a slicer and had the same results. But since it was in mm this time I noticed that the size shown was 1/1000th of the original. Seems I keep getting it converted into meters as the method of measurement without the numbers changing. Going to try straight meters for the roof of the hut (which looks good so far) and see what happens. Thanks for all the continued support! $\endgroup$ – Wacky Oct 25 '20 at 0:33

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