Tips from the ZVerse Design Network: 4 Ways to Optimize Your 3D File for Better Digital Manufacturing Results
You’re ready to manufacture. You have a 3D file. You know the budget you have to work with. You have an idea of the materials you’d like to use.
Not so fast. You have a 3D file — necessary because digital manufacturers can’t work off of 2D images — but is it optimized for manufacturing?
As digital manufacturing becomes accessible to more individuals and small businesses, many are attempting to pull together their own 3D models to save money. While many powerful 3D modeling software exist, creating manufacturable, optimized files isn’t something the software is going to do for you.
Without optimization, your manufactured object may end up being a mess. Too many supports result in a clunky, wasteful design. Lines that look all right in the model don’t turn out so well on the physical object. Pieces don’t fit together well.
Our certified 3D Design network pulled together these four tips to get the best starting point for your digital manufacturing endeavor:
Use a Single Mesh
The 3D model mesh is the collection of lines, vertices, and faces that make up the object you’ll be manufacturing. You don’t want to save multiple combined meshes in your 3D file. Instead, your design should consist of only one mesh. If you have multiple meshes, your 3D modeling software should allow you to combine the meshes into one.
Polygon Shape
Mesh is made up of shapes called polygons. These polygons determine the shape of your objects and are usually named for the number of vertices (points) they have. We recommend you use triangular or rectangular polygons in your 3D files.
The reason for this is the slicer, which is the software that turns your model into manufacturing instructions. When slicer software is preparing your 3D model for manufacturing, it breaks the file down into the layers that will build your product. Slicers have difficulty with polygons that have more than 4 vertices.
A normal is a line, vector, or another object that is perpendicular to an object (in this case, the surface of your 3D file). Before you consider your 3D file complete, double-check that all of your normals are facing in the same direction.
Thickness of Parts
One appeal of digital manufacturing is that we can create very streamlined objects. But that streamlining does have its limits. You should keep the walls of your design at least 1–2 millimeters thick. If you expect your design to see a lot of handling, you should consider making the walls even thicker.
Go Out and Manufacture Something
Making these changes (and recognizing that they need to be made) takes practice. The more files you make, the easier it’ll be to remember these tips- and to ensure that you get a guaranteed manufacturable 3D file for your intended process, head over to:
Originally published at https://www.zverse.com on July 11, 2019.
