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Importing stl file to Blender
Hello,
Im at the moment doing a school proyect, and I’m having some trouble with exportating the 3D geometry to an stl file. When I import the stl file in Blender, a free modelling software, the edge of one side doesn´t look closed and there is a gap all along that side. I´m trying to build an wind turbine, and I can´t print the blades like that with the 3d printer. Is there any solution to this?
And also, is there any way of exporting the whole rotor? It’s just, that by exporting only one blade, I loose the optimiced starting grades from the hub.
If anyone could help me with these problems, I’d really apreciate it.
Fabian
Hello Fabian,
the exported blade geometry in the .stl file should be correct and should not contain any gaps. The attached image shows an exported .stl file from QBlade, confirming that the geometry is closed at both the trailing edge and at the blade ends (the blue lines are the surface normals).
I also know of many users who have used QBlade in the past to 3d print blades through the .stl file export functionality without any issues.
Maybe you can try to use a different geometry viewer or preprocessor?
Also, are you using the latest version of QBlade?
BR,
David
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Hello David,
Thank you for the help. Turns out I wasn´t using the latest version, so with the current version it works fine.
I got another question. When you optimize your blade design, you can choose for your Opt Chord between Schmitz and Betz. Which one do you recomend for a small scale wind turbine? And also why?
I’d really appreciate your help
Thanks
Fabian
Hi Fabian,
the Schmitz optimization method also accounts for losses due to swirl (wake rotation) and is therefore the preferred approach.
BR,
David
