Heres a quick overview of how to set up your sketchup model for 3d printing orient your model so that the 3d printer has a base on which to build your model your 3d printer prints your model one layer at a time if your model juts out at the top the 3d printer has nothing to build upon for example if you want to 3d print a gear rather than orient the gear vertically place the gear on its side as shown in the following figure. You can change the template by clicking on window preferences template and selecting 3d printing millimeters or 3d printing inches 2 install the sketchup stl extension typically you can save your 3d model as a sketchup file skp. Sketchup is modeling software for 3d printing thats simple fun and predictable. Going from designing to 3d printing with sketchup requires only a few steps but can be tricky in this article learn how to make your first 3d model for 3d printing