I'm in the midst of 3D printing a car. In the photo, you can see the major parts of the car stacked vertically. This is from one STL file. I want to select just one part at a time and export it a new STL file. I'm having trouble box-selecting a part such that when I do File->Export, only that part will be included in the file. TIA!
Hey Doug,
Let's see if I can assist.
I don't have a lot of context to go off of here because the photo doesn't show object names in the outliner and it is hard to tell if the mesh is one or many. BUT, a couple of things come to mind.
1. If you simply want to select one part at a time, then use the outliner on the top right of your window and select them one by one there. You can hold CTRL + Click to select more than one item at a time.
2. Change your tool on the left toolbar from "move" to "select". (W hot key on the keyboard). You can then hold Shift + click on each object in the 3D Viewport.
If the meshes are joined as one object, then you will need to separate them into individual meshes. You'll know this is the case if you select one of the vertically stacked pieces and they all become highlighted. If that is the case, select the joined object and go into edit mode and "Separate By Loose Parts" (P key on the keyboard and select "By Loose Parts"). Then leave edit mode back to object mode. You should have more than one mesh/object now that you can select to export.
Exporting STL files, make sure to click on the gear icon on the right side that gives you options like being able to export "Selection Only" AND "Batch" export where it exports each object in the selection as different files. Whatever you name the exported STL batch will be shared across all individual files + their object names will be appended at the end of each one.
Hope this helps.