While my printer works, I still only consider it 80% complete. Check out my review video here.) That means all the plans and instructions on assembling one are available for free online so you can build your own. (UPDATE: 4/13/15 – I’ve now upgraded to a MendelMax 3.

I built a MendelMax 1.5 3D printer, which is an open source 3D printer. Many times they are missing faces altogether, or extraneous edges acting as prison bars over any holes or cutouts in the model. Things like subdivided faces, (Edges that divide a face into multiple faces, even though they are on the same plane), make it impossible to use the Push/Pull tool on a surface. If you want to print a model, you just download the STL file, load it into your printer software, (I use Cura, from Ultimaker), and you’re all set.īut what if you want to make some changes to the model? If you open it in SketchUp, you’ll probably notice a lot of problems with the STL file that make it really difficult to edit. If you’re into 3D printing, you’re probably familiar with sites like Thingiverse and Youmagine, which host thousands of free 3D models from users all over the world that you can download and print out on your 3D printer. In this article, I share my tips for working with and modifying STL files so you can 3D print them.

If you’re trying to work with STL files within SketchUp, you’ll find it challenging because all of the faces are subdivided and there are a ton of extra edges throughout. STL files are the most common file type for models designed for 3D printing.

Creating stl files for 3d printing