
Use the ShowEdgestool as before to find these errors. Non-Manifold ErrorsĬan be caused when multiple mesh surfaces share a vertex or edge. This is easy to fix using the ‘ FillHole’ command. Selecting open meshes and performing a naked edge analysis as described above will identify any holes in your mesh. Use the ‘ Unify Mesh Normals’ tool to fix the issue. The ‘positive’ direction of your mesh faces may not be coherent throughout the model. Use the Reduce Mesh command to make your file more manageable. Small items like jewelry should have around 150,000 polygons, while a 30 x 30 x 70mm object will have more like 600,000. If your mesh polygon number is higher than 1,000,000, the file will be unwieldy and difficult to print. Here are the most common problems and solutions: Too Many Polygons

Maximum Distance edge to Surface: Less than half of the printer’s resolution.These are the specific settings recommended for 3D printing:.There are simple controls and detailed controls – always select detailed controls.However for 3D printing, the model must be exported as a mesh model. Using Osnap helps to prevent open curves, a common source of bad objects.Use the Rebuildedges command to recreate the deleted surface. Explode detected bad objects and use the Selbad or Extract Bad Surfacescommands to delete specific bad surfaces.If this doesn’t work, that means there are NURBS structural problems in the model. Many bad surfaces can be fixed by exploding and rejoining the model.This runs in the background and instantly detects bad objects and corrects objects instantly. Use the ‘ Checknewobjects’ command to verify objects as they are created.Make sure to save your NURBS model before this operation as it is difficult or impossible to reverse. In Rhino 3.0 Service, Release 4.0: Under Bonus Tools you will find ‘ FillHole’ and ‘ FillHoles’ to fix naked edges in the mesh. Select Show Edges → Naked Edges as before. Your NURBS model can be converted to mesh with the Mesh command.If precision is not important, the JoinEdges command can be used to join surfaces forcibly, however it’s better to recreate the bad surface.Created surfaces and existing surfaces must be within model tolerance to join correctly. Naked edges due to missing surfaces can easily be corrected by filling in the hole with a new surface and joining the new surfaces together.Select Analysis → Show Edges → Naked Edges to display naked edges in your object.They often appear after joining and Boolean operationsNaked Edge: Surface edges not connected to other surface edges, which create open meshes that cannot be 3D printedįind open polysurfaces by selecting Analyse Direction → Show Edges → Select Open Polysurfaces, and then follow the steps below: To Prevent Naked Edges The most common reason models become unprintable is due to bad objects and naked edges.īad Object: Objects that violate NURBS rules or have structural problems. To achieve a watertight model, you need a closed polysurface.

if you dropped the model in a bath, no water would leak inside. Check Your 3D Modelsįor successful 3D prints, the 3D model should be watertight, i.e. Make sure your units are set to mm before exporting your file for printing. No matter what units you use to create your model, files exported from Rhino are almost always read as mm. Rhino file tolerance can be set from the document properties window, units tab. Set correct tolerances before you start modelling by finding the tolerance of the program you are exporting your model to and setting Rhino tolerance to be 10 times that (i.e., printer tolerance is 0.1mm, so Rhino tolerance should be set to 0.01mm).
#Rhino print to scale how to
There are some unique considerations to keep in mind when preparing 3D print files specifically in Rhino, so for this post, we’re going to go into more detail on how to export your CAD models here. We recently wrote an overview on How to Prepare CAD Files for 3D Printing, going over some general considerations and steps to properly export your 3D printing files.
