1

Hi guys I don’t know the right search term for this problem on the forums. I have a part I’m trying to print that is concave or dish-shaped. It seems like no matter what setting I adjust, the software entirely fills the dish shape with plastic as if it’s holding water. It’s a small part with 1.5mm wall thickness. Does anyone know what setting(s) could be causing this?

Thanks!

Makerbot-Print Preview.jpg
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2

Can you upload the part in a couple different views or the part itself so we can look at it too?

3

Sure here’s a screenshot of the original part in Solidworks, and a shot of how it turned out in real life.
makerbotpartIRL.jpg makerbotpartinSW.jpg

4

Interesting, are there any hidden surfaces or anything that would cause the slicer to treat it as an enclosed solid space? how does it look in the slicer before slicing?

1 Like
5

In the Solidworks save as dialog I can see the STL triangle wireframe, and there are no hidden surfaces there. The shading in the slicer isn’t great, but you can clearly see geometry there that ultimately gets completely filled in.

UPDATE:

My solidworks model was all surfaces. I knit them into a solid, and the preview now corresponds to reality. I will try this out but it looks good so far. Thanks for responding!
slicerview.jpg

6

I cannot see from this picture, inside the dish structure which shape has the plastic ? It looks like the exagonal structure of the standard makerware infill, maybe there is an error in the model or a “ghost” surface.

7

have you tried running the mesh through netfabb or similar? (meshmixer is free)

8

The model isn’t correct there is a hole in the model.

9

It seems like your STL probably has reversed surfaces that the slicing software is repairing or filling with internal support.

10

Run it thru net fab or there is a setting in solidworks to check if the model is watertight.

11

Netfabb cloud… will fix this problem

12

This happens if there are faces turned the wrong way or holes or overlaps in your model. Very common if you use a rotating extrusion tool or circular array tool in your software and any part of the path shape crosses the center axis. It can be really hard to find to a software that detects and repairs it is your best bet.

13

also make sure the “merge all outlines into a single model” box is unchecked

Screen Shot 2016-06-24 at 11.48.58 AM.png
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14

can you give a link to the stl file ?

15

Thanks for the help everyone! It was a result of trying to save the file as multiple surface bodies from SolidWorks. Converting to a solid first fixed the problem.

16

nixed