- [Instructor] The enclosure is now finished.
If you like, we can add some more details
or you can adjust some of the sizes and features.
But well done for creating this entire model from nothing.
Now that we've finished modeling,
we want to actually print these files ourselves.
And to do that, we need to export the files.
Firstly, open the part that you want to export.
I'll demonstrate with this top part, click on it
and press open part.
And at this stage it's always worth
just having a quick-double check of your part.
Making sure everything looks correct.
That looks good.
To file, save as.
And you'll probably get a warning pop up.
This is because SolidWorks thinks we going to change
the file name.
But we're actually just going to change the file type.
We can ignore this and press save as.
Then just keep the file name the same.
And change save as type, from part to STL.
The vast majority of printers use this STL format.
There might be a few specialists ones
that use a different format,
but 99% of them will work with STL.
Just for your information.
Step is also a very useful format.
This is commonly used for things like
CNC machining and injection molding.
But for this let's use the STL format.
And then down here, we can select the options.
Click on that.
And the default options here are usually very good.
Often you don't really need to touch this,
but just for your information, you can change the units here
and you can change the quality here.
This is really up to you.
But I'd recommend trying to avoid the temptation
to work the quality settings up to the highest settings.
Often, all this really does above a certain point
is just increases your file size
and how long it takes to open and work with the file.
Unless you've got an extremely accurate printer,
then often those highest settings are just overkill already.
Probably keep the setting at fine and press okay
and then press save.
Now this message will show you your file size.
And in the background, we can see a preview of the STL file.
The STL is actually made up of thousands of tiny triangles.
You can see here, there's over 6,000 in this model.
Press yes to save your file.
And now if you go to your project folder,
you should see the STL file there at the bottom.
If you're using a newer version of windows,
you should have native support for this.
You can double-click on it and open it
and check it looks correct.
Like so.
If you're using an older version of windows,
you might not be able to open the STL directly.
Now you can use your specialist printing software
to slice this model up into lots of layers
and send these to your printer.
And the exact details of this,
will depend exactly on your specific printer.
But you'll probably use a program.
Something like Cura for this,
then you can play around with your exact printer settings.
And hopefully print out something like we see on screen.
Happy printing.