Opening stl's from sketchup in Cura, size changes

So I made something in Sketchup that was about an inch long, and then when I open it in Cura for slicing, the piece is 230mm. Anyone have an idea what I am doing wrong? I was using inches as a measurement in sketchup, could that be it?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2013 09:11PM by Antslake.

1 in = 25.4 mm
230 mm = 9,0551181102362204724409448818898 in

So, if your object was 9 inches long then THAT is indeed your problem!
You must set millimeters when writing to STL format since most software (such as our slicers) assume that the units are in millimeters (mm).

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
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Even if I design it in inches, I can still output to stl in mm?

YES, if you are using the newest Sketchup 2013 Make with the STL import/export installed via the Extension Warehouse.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Actually, design software is for the most part unitless - as are STL files. The only time units come into play is when you want to transfer the design to a physical object - like a 3D print.

Your printer assumes 1 unit is equal to 1 millimeter, so it is easiest to simply operate your design software with this same constraint. All the conversion from inches to millimeters does is multiply each coordinate by 25.4.

Quote
jbernardis
Actually, design software is for the most part unitless

Advanced CAD/CAM software does take units into account and require that you set which units you are working on. Such data is required to inquire for example the mass of a part. But most people here do not work with such software.

IDK, I exported as mm, and the object was still out of scale.

I think I designed something else in mm as the starting measurement then exported and didn't have this problem.

I would say that since the RepRap toolchain uses millimeters, it would only be wise to model using the same unit system. It can save a lot of headaches.

Plus, maybe in the long run this will help kill that backward system (US/imperial) once and for all!!!

(I have no choice but to work with inches everyday at work, and make it a point of working in metric at home)

I am in the same business. I use imperial at work. Although having to work with metric over the last bunch of years with my hobbies, I think I prefer metric. I still think in imperial though.

I moved to the us when I was a youg boy. I can say this, if you start using imperial units its a crap shoot for mostly anything out there. American car manufacturers dumped imperial units in the late 70's because it made things much more complex and archaic. Design things in metric units and do the conversions in a calculator, your designs will be better, and so will your head from not converting crap back and fourth. I could never adopt imperial as a unit for anything serious, the scale used is too lax and time consuming. My father on the other hand loves imperial measurements, however his work deals with 1/5 of an inch precision, I on the other hand am way too anal to have that lax of a standard. To me anything over .1mm is way too much.

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