Lose scale/units on exported STL file when 'Right Click on Body' & "Save Mesh" (but works fine for "File > Export" )

[mrector333]

I am modeling a building in 1:1 scale from blueprints.

I am modeling in inches.

My Default settings for measurements is Inches.

1. When I 'File > Export'  everything works just fine. Then I open in Lychee and it is scaled as I expect/correctly.

2. But, if I try to <RMB> + 'Body' and then "Save as Mesh", I select Format:STL, Unit Type: Inch, skip Preview Mesh checkbox, Refinement: Medium.  Then if I open in Lychee, it is scaled too small.  I think it may be scaling to mm (perhaps), rather than inches.

Of course, I prefer to use the RMB option because it exports the file in 2 seconds, rather than File > Export, which takes 10+ minutes.

Does anyone have any ideas I could try?

[robert.filiks]

Hi @mrector333,
Thanks for posting! 
Can you share a public link to your design so I will investigate it further?

[HughesTooling]

@mrector333  Just did a test. Using Export the STL is exported in mm, so a 1 inch cube is exported as 25.4 units in the STL. When you use right click and save as mesh then select inches (document also inches) you get a cube that's 1 unit square so no scaling at all 1:1!

So it looks like the program you're exporting too expects the STL file in mm, this is what most of the STL files out there on grabCAD are in and what most slicers expect. So you need to select mm as your export option when you use Save As Mesh.

Mark

[mrector333]

Thank you! That is very helpful!