Hi all
I have an object that isn’t manifold and therefore doesn’t 3D print. I’ve tried creating the model using a couple of different methods or rather doing things in a different order and it still fails. I’ve downloaded Solid Inspector and used it on my model. When I click fix it removes the internal oval. The object I’m trying to create is a frame with a 1mm step in the centre.
My workflow is
Create a rectangle
Create first oval
Create second oval
Delete the centre
Use Push/Pull on the model 2mm
Use Push Pull on the internal oval -1mm
Thanks!
John
This happened due to the way you created the model. If you draw the rectangle with the ellipitcal hole and extrude it to the height of the lip before drawing the larger ellipse for the outer edge of the lip and then extrude to the final height, you won’t have the missing faces or anything to clean up.
When modeling for 3D printing, set units to Meters and model as if millimeters are meters. This allows you to model finer detail without running into the “tiny face” issue. When you export the .stl to go to the slicer, make sure either Model Units or Meters are selected in the export options panel. There’s no need to scale the model down to real world dimensions before exporting.
Turn off Length Snapping in Model Info>Units. That just gets in the way of accurate and precise modeling.
For circles (even if they will become ellipses) use a multiple of 12 for the number of sides and drag out the radius on axis. This makes working with the circles easier. In your model you dragged the radius out slightly off axis.
The problem with your model stems from modeling the outline of the lip too early. For this kind of model, think about how features would get modeled with an FDM printer. The initial layers would have the rectangular perimeter and the elliptical hole but the lip wouldn’t get outlined by the printer until the first 1 mm of the thing is printed. Model the same way.
