Maya 2019 STL exporting wrong dimensions

[kristionmajor]

I am having trouble with scale in STL export in Maya. I have been having an issue for a while where everything I model gets scaled down by a factor of 10 when I import into programs like meshmixer or cura. I understand that STL files do not save units, and that when I model and import, both programs need to be set to the same units. So as a test, I made a cube in maya at 150 mm, double checking that my units were set to mm, then in meshmixer, I import the cube into meshmixer, but the cube scales down to around 15mm. This happens with all of my models. I know that I can just scale these models up in meshmixer or cura, but I have seen other people's models keep the right scale. In addition, if I take the model into fusion 360, then export for 3D printing there, then import into meshmixer, the correct scale is set. Is there anyway that I can go straight from maya to meshmixer or cura and have the scale be correct? I have double checked that the units are the same, so I am 99% sure that is not the fix, even though just about all of the similar forum posts claim that to be the solution.

[Anonymous]

First off, do you need STL as format for printing? (not familiar with 3d printing)

Have you tried exporting as .fbx? Whatever your working units is set on (centimeters or meter) you can use the advanced export options for the .fbx format. 

Export -> Files of type: FBX export -> (right) Advanced Options -> Units

Try to play around with it. Personally i prefer to use meter units for modelling and export it with a scale factor of 1.0 and a conversion to centimeters, automatic unchecked. 

Hope this kinda helps. Greetings!

David

[afriedlander]

So this isn't really a 'solution' per-say, but I noticed that my Maya was doing the same thing (when I export to obj)... 

I work as if I'm using mm but sometime in the last few months it reset my units to cm and now when I have the units set to cm it exports as mm and when i use mm it exports cm... 

I'd double check and see if your maya is doing the same thing and, if it is, you could just set your units to cm like mine have apparently been for months... 

I'm still digging around because this isn't really acceptable to me as a final solution, but it's not a bad temp fix. I'll return if I find anything more tangible. 

[kristionmajor]

I will definitely try that, thanks for the help.

[Anonymous]

The real question here is why maya keeps on releasing errors like this in the first place? What the **** are the developers thinking when they released 2018-2019 with errors such as these? they never did anything to fix their issues. All they do is just give us further instructions that never work. seriously they should never make mistakes like this at all period

[goldenhillsgraphics]

It's been years, and years, and still, there is no fix for this??

[drakgoku · Accepted solution]

Solved