10 Basic 3D Model Repair Functions

Every Data Prepper Should Know

If you have some experience with designing and printing
3D models, you know how important it is to repair your
3D file after conversion from CAD to STL. The design
may look perfect, but when you start printing it, the build
can fail. An error can easily slip the eye, which is why STL
editing software can help you avoid printability issues and
ensure a successful print. The STL repair and editing tools
mentioned below help create a watertight, printable 3D
model.

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1. Flip inverted normals
If a normal inadvertently gets flipped, so that
There are two sides to any 3D model: the it faces inward, the printer will get confused
outside, which is the side you’ll be able to see and think that the entire inside of your model
once it’s been printed, and the inside, which needs to be filled in since the inside can now
you would only be able to see if you cut a hole also be considered as the outside of the model.
through the side of your design. The triangles Essentially, it won’t know where to stop printing
making up the body of your design also have an and which parts it needs to leave hollow.
inner side and an outer side, and the outer side is
called the “normal”.

2. Fill holes

Sometimes triangles are missing, leaving a gap It’s important to note that it’s completely
in your design. This is also confusing for the possible to print a design with intentional holes;
printer, as it won’t have enough information these holes just need to be properly defined with
to print the part properly. It tends to deal with correctly placed triangles.
these gaps in a similar way to the way it deals
with inverted normal: your printer won’t know
where the design begins or ends and it will end
up printing only the contour (and neglect the
inside of each slice) or it will continue to print
when it should stop.

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3. Avoid overlapping triangles

When designing a more complex model, you

will probably need to combine two shapes or
subtract a part of your model (i.e. applying
Boolean operations). As a result, the internal
geometry of your model is no longer optimal,
and you’ll need to clean up the redundant
triangles that overlap each other. It isn’t a fatal
flaw – but it will cost the printer more time and
material to print your model. It’s also extremely
tricky to spot on a finished model, as there
could be layers upon layers of hidden redundant
triangles worked into your design without you
noticing

4. Stitch bad edges

When two or more triangles aren’t connected

to each other, we refer to it as “bad edges”. In
theory, bad edges can also simply be considered
as gaps in the design, as the triangles that
surround the gap can’t connect to an edge
anymore. When your design contains bad edges,
it means that you don’t have a watertight
design. You need to stitch these bad edges to
get a manifold, printable model.

Another variant of this phenomenon is called

“near bad edges” and occurs when two triangles
are close to one another, but with edges that
don’t completely touch. This isn’t always visible
on your screen, so it’s always best to be careful
and let your STL editor indicate the errors.
When you have a whole series of bad edges, it’s
referred to as a “bad contour”.

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5. Remove noise shells

Not the kind you find on a beach, in 3D Printing To make this all a little more clear visually,
a shell is basically a group of connected triangles imagine drawing the outline of a shape on a
which forms an autonomous 3D object in your piece of paper. If you trace the same outline
file. These shells can overlap one another or be a second time, it will become thicker, much
separated by space. A frequent problem with like the way a 3D printed object gets thicker
shells is when they have inverted triangles, or and stronger the more shells it is printed with.
when the triangles on intersecting shells touch When printing a hollow design (a fairly standard
each other but one side is face the wrong practice as the model will be lighter and more
direction. cost-effective), the most common tactic is to
print an outer shell (called an “outline”) and an
Another phenomenon can occur, where a inner shell (called an “insert”). The inner layer
shell is so small that it becomes unnecessary. is composed of inverted normals in order to
These types of shells are called “noise shells” signal to the computer that it is designing a
or “orphaned shells” as they barely have any hollow model, and besides, a design with a single
volume. Think of it as a wrinkle in an otherwise shell won’t be strong enough and is likely to be
smooth piece of fabric that needs to ironed printed badly. Too many shells are also bad for
out. The easiest way to remove noise shells is the object, and the maximum recommendation
by flipping inverted triangles, and finally the is five.
remaining useful shells in your design will need
to be unified into a single, solid volume. It is The ShrinkWrap tool
not necessarily a bad thing if your design has For files with very bad quality, the automatic repair of
multiple shells – but the print time will increase flipped triangles, bad edges, holes and rough surfaces
significantly. may not be sufficient. In that case, you can apply one of
Materialise’s impressive fixing tools, called ShrinkWrap.
This complex algorithm will place a thin layer around your
model that shrinks afterwards and repairs difficult errors,
while keeping details intact.

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6. Trim or unify intersecting and
overlapping triangles

Another common problem that novices in 3D

Printing may come across is triangles cutting
each other. When triangles intersect, you will
have to cut off the sharp edge and trim the
triangles to obtain a unified design. If you forget
to do this, the 3D printer will get confused again
about the inside and outside of your model and
will not know what part of the bounding box to
fill up, resulting in a failed print.

Triangles can also overlap. When this happens

an edge of a triangle is shared by more than
two faces. In this case the printer will have a
hard time calculating the production path. It’s
not clear to the machine what it needs to do,
so it can slice your model in a way that the
laser or nozzle simply continues to print your
model with two identical edges on top of one
another. Materialise Magics software removes
the duplicates that are part of the overlapping
triangles, thereby getting rid of the calculation
problem and ensuring that you have a unified
solid model.

7. Check wall thickness

Fun fact: 1 in 5 orders received in 3D printing

bureaus have to be cancelled due to incorrect
wall thickness. It’s exceedingly common, and
it’s a very important part of your design that
you need to get right. When using 3D modeling
software, it is possible to design a surface
without implementing wall thickness. However,
the 3D printer will need information about how
thick you intend the wall of your object to be.
It’s a bit of a balancing act: the proper wall
thickness means that you need surfaces which
are thick enough to be 3D printed successfully
and contribute to a strong, printed part on
the one hand, and on the other hand thin
enough to save as much material as possible.
With Materialise Magics, you can analyze wall
thickness and fortify the walls where needed.

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8. Minimize file size
Original file
Every triangle your design is made up of uses
memory in your computer. Therefore, STL files
with more triangles are heavier to process and
slice. In many cases, the 3D printer won’t even
be able to print a file over a certain amount
of polygons, making triangle reduction –
also known as polygon reduction or mesh
decimation - an essential component.

9. Rescale your 3D model

When can rescaling a 3D model be useful? First

of all, since STL files don’t contain distance
unit information, you can use a rescale tool to Optimized file size
rescale your model to the right unit and size.
Secondly, to overcome some wall thickness
issues, you can shrink or enlarge your model
to the appropriate size. Thirdly, when ordering
your 3D Print, size influences the price you will
pay. And finally, parts are often rescaled for
compensating shrinkage when printing.

10. Hollow parts

3D Printing can be a costly business, so to waste

less material while printing, you can hollow out
your entire model. With Materialise Magics,
you can hollow models while maintaining the
freedom of deciding the optimal wall thickness
for printing. This ensures that the printed version
will be as economical and environmentally
friendly as possible, while still retaining its
optimal structural integrity and great looks.
In fact, all of the actions described above can be
performed with Materialise Magics software.

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About Materialise
Materialise incorporates nearly 30 years of 3D printing experience into a range of software
solutions and 3D printing services, which together form the backbone of the 3D printing industry.
Materialise’s open and flexible solutions enable players in a wide variety of industries, including
healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design, and consumer goods, to build innovative
3D printing applications that aim to make the world a better and healthier place. Headquartered
in Belgium, with branches worldwide, Materialise combines one of the largest groups of software
developers in the industry with one of the largest 3D printing facilities in the world.

For additional information, please visit: 

www.materialise.com