3D Printers 2

We have been tinkering with the printers and software for a couple of days and although we still do not have kids on campus (December Holiday Vacation) we have made a few discoveries. I'm sure there will be many more to come

Sketchup -

1. You need to download a .stl exporter - this is the right language for the MakerBot software to print. This exporter is found in the "extensions warehouse" within the sketchup program. Note that I found that I had to sign in to download the extension.
2. Once you create something in sketchup (and believe me anything I have made in very simple) I found that if I selected it all and "grouped" it that worked well before I exported.
3. Faces and facing the right direction - this has been tricky and has been the subject of some inline discussions. When we thought everything looked perfect and exported it to .stl then into the MakerWare software it looked great. When we printed it look much different than the model. What we found is that the "faces" of the objects created in Sketchup were not facing the right way. If when you look at the structure in either Sketchup of Makerware, you find that one of them is dark (and it seem logical that it should be light color) then it needs to be turned around. This is better described in this blog - http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2011/07/22/google-sketchup-design-tip-fix-flipped-faces/

The MakerBot 2 Printer

1. Printing from the computer - When we first printed using the MakerWare from the computer, the computer tried to logout (network setup in school) and paused the printing and we could not resume it. We solved this by unbinding the computer from the network and now it does not disconnect or sleep. The OTHER solution was to "Make" to the supplied SD card and then plug it back into the printer.
2. Sticking to the blue tape - The first object was fairly easy to remove but since then we have had trouble getting the objects off the tape. We have not arrived at a solution yet but are working on one.