You’ve done the design and 3D modeling work and you’re excited to print your part. And yet, it fails the printability checks. Below are the top 3 reasons we see models coming up as unprintable and the ways you can fix them.
Thin Walls
This error will most frequently limit the types of materials your product is printable in. Because our plastics are more forgiving, a model may pass printability in those materials but not in any metals. Whether it’s unprintable in all or only some materials, here’s a helpful resource for breaking down that wall that’s keeping your model from being printable (pun intended).
Floating Shells
Loose shells are pieces of your model that are separate or unconnected from the base portion of the model. In some cases, this may be intentional (like this) because you want the parts separated. If not, try our part count visualization tool to help you identify unconnected parts and catch problems where you had intended to print a single, connected model.
Non-manifold Edges
This means that your model has failed print checks with a “non-manifold” or “mixed normals” error. These can be triggered by a number of things so head on over to this page to find out how you can fix the model.
Now that you’re ready to make it printable, upload your latest model here.
Very good information in this article. I am still fairly new to 3d printing, but after reading this article makes me want to design and print something right now.
Great read and great information.