Convert IPT To STL For 3D Printer Part Becomes Smaller

[Anonymous]

I made a part on inventor and when i converted to stl and viewed it on the printing software, the part shows up very very small. Yes i have checked that my units are in inches and have made multiple STLs to test and even if i change the units from inches to say, millimeters, the part is the same size (extremely small). I have been troubleshooting for two days on my own and can't find anything. Any help is appreciated!

kelly.young has edited your subject line for clarity: IPT To STL issues

[Anonymous]

these are the current parts, i tried converting the units of the actual project from inches to millimeters, but still nothing!

[Anonymous]

these are the current parts, i tried converting the units of the actual project from inches to millimeters, but still nothing!

[JDMather]

Can you attach your resulting *.stl files here?

Can you try the attached file?

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

Works just fine here..

You are likely saving it with the incorrect units as you think you need to change it in the wrong spot..

Do not change the units in Inventors document settings..

Instead before you press the "save" button hit the "options" button next to it and set the units in that screen that your viewer software is expecting..

I use "CURA" for my slicer and it expects mm.. So when I save have it set to mm there but everything in Inventor is modeled as inches..

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I have Inventor 2012.

The only way I found to get round this problem was to set my "Document Settings", "Units" to cm.

Even though the settings in "Save as"/ Options is set to mm, and using Repetier the units in that are set to mm.

Do you think this is a bug in Inventor 2012?

Regards

Rick

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Ricky,

STL/OBJ files do not have a sense of unit. The mesh geometry is recorded in absolute values. It is up to exporting system to set the correct scale. On Inventor 2012, the default STL export unit is centimeter. As a result, the receiving end will need to set to centimeter for correct scale.

You can simply change the STL export unit by clicking on Options in Export dialog -> select mm as the export unit scale.

It should work. Please try it and confirm the behavior.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi Johnson,

Thanks for coming back on that but I have tried setting mm in the options. this still resulted in the stl file being scaled down by 10.

As I put in my first post it seems that I have to set the document settings to cm.

Ricky

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Ricky,

I am sorry I am confused. I might misunderstand the issue. But, if the export unit is in sync with the printer unit, it should work. Otherwise, there is a bug here. Do you mind sharing an Inventor file exhibiting such behavior?

Many thanks!