3d printer size question...

[Vince Herried]

I have been tinkering with blender to make 3d objects for some time now, but not for 3d printing.  I don't have a 3d printer.  For my use the size I make the  item is the size it ends up when I import it into the virtual world.

From looking at 3d down load sites it appears that the defined size is much greater than the size it is to be printed in.  

Is it a common thing that the defined size is two orders of magnitude larger than the desired size?  I see a case for a micro processor board that I want to get printed.

The micro is about 25 mm wide and the case I downloaded from thingverse ( I think that is where I got it )  was 2.5M wide.

So if I create something 100 times larger than what I want, I can assume the folks at the 3d printer will auto magically know?   When I sent items to Shape Ways their upload page gave the option of using mm or meters.  So using meters meant they scaled it down by 100.

I'm hopping to  get the  Westerville library to print it for me.

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Vince

[Bill Schwanitz]

It all depends on the unit the STL file is using. For instance inches or millimeters.  If I recall your part was scaled in inches so I converted it to millimeters.

Go Google for netfab.  The basic editing is free and will help with that. It detects the scale factors sometimes.

I also have used openscad and 123design which has a measuring tool. I don't know if blender has an option to work in metric scale

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[Vince Herried]

Blender has imperial, metric, and "blender" units. I usually use the metric setting ( second life uses metric also).

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Vince

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[Silas Baronda]

Hi Vince,

This link will help you understand units in STL files: https://wps3dprinter.wordpress.com/designing/stl-units/

Also, another program that I like to use is Meshmixer to help measure my parts.

—Silas

[Vince Herried]

Thanks that web page clears it up.

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Vince