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Patriot_1776
Patriot_177622-Sapphire II
22-Sapphire II
September 17, 2019
Solved

Issues with using Creo 3 M130 STL files with Ultimaker 3D printer

  • September 17, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 3208 views

We have a couple Ultimaker 3D printers here, and I've recently sent files over to be printed.  When I got them back, the scaling was so far off between the parts nothing was the correct size.  The scaling was off by over 30% and wasn't even consistent!  Come to find out the guy said the STL files came in tiny (as if my 1.3" came in a 1.3mm, but he didn't confirm that), and he applied a scale factor to what he assumed (we know what THAT means) I wanted.  So, the next time around when I sent STL files I also sent STEP files and a dwg so he knew exactly how big the part should be.  I wasn't sure why, but maybe he couldn't use the STEP file to get the size, and had to rely on the dwg.  I've NEVER had this issue before in over 30 years of making STL files for 3D printing.

 

So, I have an e-mail in to Ultimaker to see if it simply isn't a setting that the guy needs to change (i.e. units set to inches instead of mm etc.) because we design in inches here for the most part.  I'll post up if I get an answer.

Best answer by Patriot_1776

Ok, so, I just put in an e-mail to Ultimaker, and though I haven’t heard back yet, I think they’re going to say that there isn’t a setting, and that the problem is that they ASSUMED (and we all know what THAT word really means…) that STL files would all be made in metric, so that’s what Cura does.  So, it seems the solution is to have anyone who sends you STL files let you know whether the units are inches or mm, and if it’s inches, then you simply scale the file by 25.4X (2540%).  I found this info on a forum dedicated to Ultimaker.

 

I figured it was something stupidly simple like that, too bad Cura doesn’t simple have a way to set units when importing, since you can’t when exporting as STL and even OBJ files are unitless…

1 reply

Patriot_1776
Patriot_177622-Sapphire IIAuthorAnswer
22-Sapphire II
September 17, 2019

Ok, so, I just put in an e-mail to Ultimaker, and though I haven’t heard back yet, I think they’re going to say that there isn’t a setting, and that the problem is that they ASSUMED (and we all know what THAT word really means…) that STL files would all be made in metric, so that’s what Cura does.  So, it seems the solution is to have anyone who sends you STL files let you know whether the units are inches or mm, and if it’s inches, then you simply scale the file by 25.4X (2540%).  I found this info on a forum dedicated to Ultimaker.

 

I figured it was something stupidly simple like that, too bad Cura doesn’t simple have a way to set units when importing, since you can’t when exporting as STL and even OBJ files are unitless…

Chris3
Chris321-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
September 17, 2019

Cura and Creo both support 3mf which includes units. Use that instead.

Chris3
Chris321-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
September 17, 2019

Just realized you are on Creo 3. I forget when 3mf was introduced (Creo 5 or 6). If you have access to a non-production install you could open and export out of a newer version of Creo.

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