There are many reasons why a 3D model may not be printable and may either be rejected by our systems or may lead to failed prints. Some of the possible reasons may be,
a) The polygonal mesh may not be a closed body and may have holes in it;
b) Some polygonal faces may be inverted (normals are facing the wrong direction);
c) Some parts of the 3D model may not have any volume at all;
d) There may be extra geometry in the model which is intersecting / overlapping with other parts;
e) Features such as walls, holes, etc. may be too thin / small to print successfully. To learn more about the minimum wall thicknesses & feature sizes for printing at Fabforma, you may visit
this page;
f) Very thin walls may be printable but will be vulnerable to breaking during handling of the part post-printing;
g) Proper clearances between mating parts are not present;
h) The geometry of the 3D model may not be suitable for the printing material required specifically for the part;
i) The overall size of the 3D model may be either too small or too large for us to print it successfully.
Printability issues are encountered more with polygonal models than with solid CAD models, due to the nature of the models. At Fabforma, we analyze your models for free to check for printability issues and also to suggest any optimization that can be done to reduce the printing costs. If you are looking to get a high-quality 3D model designed for 3D printing, you may get one at Fabforma by either submitting your project details
out here or sending us an email at
support@fabforma.com.
