Printing more than one object at a time

Now that I am happy with the way my Mendel is printing, I want to print another one a full set with Wades extruder, so far I can only get one item onto the print bed at a time. I use Solidworks 2011 as my CAD program and to save as .stl files, I also have NetFabb, Solidworks eDrawings viewer and I use Skeinforge41 for my Gcode and Repsnapper to drive my Mendel. I am using Windows as opposed to Linux.

Thanks
Gary

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

Have you not been able to get SolidWorks to save an assembly parts as one .stl? I haven't tried it yet (it's on my list), but Skeinforge should be able to slide the multi-body .stl file.

When you save the assembly of parts as an .stl, go to the options and check "save all components of an assembly as a single file".

If you want to print multiple solidworks parts or assemblies, then you can put them together in one assembly, use mate to position all their bottoms in the XY plane with the top along the Z axis and then export all the parts into one stl file. If you use multiply in skeinforge, then you don't have to worry about their x-y locations. If you don't then position them where you want them on the build platform.

If you want to print multiple stl files, then you can import them into a solidworks file using insert - features - parts and then use insert - features - move to position them in the same way before saving them as stl.

Thanks guys, have found that by setting multiply in SF I can print several of the same item at the same time, so something for me to play around with

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

I cannot get Solid works to open the .stl files in assembly mode unfortunately. I can open them in eDrawings viewer but not to make an assembly

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

You'll have to import them into part models first, unfortunately.

Yes. You have to import them into a part file (*.sldprt). But you can use the Move feature to orient the parts on the XY plane for printing.

look into heekscad. you can import stl files and save as a single stl.

[code.google.com]

just install the application, and open up your main stl, then import everything else.


I don't use solid works, but here is some information on importing stl files.

[help.solidworks.com]

I'm teaching myself Solidworks, so that is useful to know that I can import .stl for some reason I couldn't find that information

Thanks

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand