Yet another .stl question

[pridbor]

I have designed a wheel bolt cover for my rare Citroen Cx.

When I look at the design within Alibre, it looks fine. But when I then have a look at the STL file, in MeshMixer, then it looks like Alibre has generated a "floor,"
i.e. made it very thick in an area where I had it only a few mm.

Does anybody have a suggestion? I have tried eliminating a number of smaller items for a simpler design but have not had any luck so far.

It's intended for a test 3D print, so I don't want to pay for a thick layer of material

Preben

 

[Ken226]

I opened your part and exported a .stl file, and got the same results you did. I'm not sure why.

I also tried exporting it as a .stp file, and the .stp exported correctly. I opened it in PrusaSlicer, and re-exported it from PrusaSlicer as a .stl.



If you are generating .stl files for the purpose of 3d printing, I think .stp files work better more often. It seems like every time I create a .stl file that has problems, I can fix it by just exporting a .stp file instead. I know we're used to using .stl, but most of the common slicers these days can import .stp files. I've used Prusa Slicer, Cura and Flashprint all with .stp files.

Here is the .stl that I created by re-exporting a .stp from Prusa Slicer. The forum won't let me upload a .stl, so i changed the file extension to .txt.

just change it back to .stl after you download the file.

 

[pridbor]

Ken,

Thanks a lot for your input. I have created 25+ designs in Alibre, all for 3D printing, and all working out perfectly fine. So, this is a first!

I imported your file, and it shows the correct geometry.

P.s. I don't have my own 3D printer yet, as I'm not sure if the results are good enough for use in e.g. an engine compartment, with lot's of heat.

I normally send out for production as it's not that expensive, and the results have been very good.

Thanks again

Preben

 

[dwc]

I'd be really interested in why that is happening.
I have exported hundreds of parts as .stl for 3D printing and have never seen such behaviour, or any other failures for that matter.
It has always simply worked.

 

[DavidJ]

Probably your STL export settings (or the software you are viewing in). I tried export from Alibre with the default 4° normal deviation and other options disabled. The resulting binary STL looks OK in 3D Builder and in Cura. No thickening of the disc.