The Official 3D Printing Discussion Thread

[stitchdup]

with the shape of the truck body, and lack of detail on the front, i'd be tempted to tilt it forward rather than back. it would open up space for supports on the back wall and more around the wheel arch. i tend to print most bodies with med supports for everything (using lychee)

[Mike Slapattack]

4 hours ago, stitchdup said:

with the shape of the truck body, and lack of detail on the front, i'd be tempted to tilt it forward rather than back. it would open up space for supports on the back wall and more around the wheel arch. i tend to print most bodies with med supports for everything (using lychee)

Thank you for the idea, I flipped it to have the back up high instead. Let's see if it works!

 

 

5 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

I'd try putting supports on the inside of the body on the sides. For whatever reason, Chitubox only wants to place them mostly in a vertical direction, leaving IMO voids along the sides that can be supported. Putting them on the insides along the sides of the cab will also keep print shifting at bay, which in a convertible for instance is important, since you don't have the real estate of a roof to place supports.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for the suggestion! I added those into the next test print which I'm running now, along with the back angled up as another suggested.

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

Has anyone printed anything from the designer hora80? He has thousands of designs but the images on cults3d don't look too appealing. I'd like to see some of their designs printed.  Thanks 

[stitchdup]

47 minutes ago, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

Has anyone printed anything from the designer hora80? He has thousands of designs but the images on cults3d don't look too appealing. I'd like to see some of their designs printed.  Thanks 

I've printed a couple of his audis. for the cost they are decent but i wouldn't pay more for them. they all need the door shuts redone. sometimes its the only game in town for some stuff 

[carsntrucks4you]

On 4/15/2025 at 1:09 AM, Mike Slapattack said:

Hey everyone. I am having some issues trying to print my first body. It's a Ranger cab that I designed myself. Consistantly it's coming out with the ends of the rockers curved up, and I don't know why. In my model they are straight, and that's what I'm shooting for.

I am using an Elegoo Saturn 2 with the Elegoo 8K standard resin, using all of the specified settings for that resin. Here are pictures of the issue and my Chitubox setup. The supporting is done with light supports spaced at 3.5mm with heavy supports placed in here and there at key points along the bottom edges.

Any advice whatsoever would be appreciated, this is very frustrating! Thanks.

- Mike

 

Great That is what I looking for. I had a 1990 Ranger as my frist pickup

[V8tiger]

Has anyone used the app KIRI Engine to scan and actually printed anything with it? 

[V8tiger]

Has anyone actually used KIRI engine and printed something? 

[peteski]

Being a bit impatient?  I notified the admins to put this in the proper place.

[V8tiger]

3 hours ago, peteski said:

Being a bit impatient?  I notified the admins to put this in the proper place.

Not impatient… just a little duh…sorry I didn’t  mean to post this twice. In fact there wasn’t an hour between posts. It was about 3 minutes because I thought I’d messed up. Thanks for helping to put this where it should go. 👍

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

On 7/24/2025 at 3:23 PM, stitchdup said:

 for the cost they are decent but i wouldn't pay more for them. 

Yeah, that's what I figured. Any pics?

Thanks

[stitchdup]

4 minutes ago, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

Yeah, that's what I figured. Any pics?

Thanks

I've only got pics of the audi a5. the bodykit came from elsewhere. this was printed at 0.03 layer height

 

 

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

2 minutes ago, stitchdup said:

I've only got pics of the audi a5. the bodykit came from elsewhere. this was printed at 0.03 layer height

 

 

Nice print but I see what you mean. If nothing else, it's the headlights and molded in side mirrors that are deal breakers for me.

Thanks 

[stitchdup]

1 minute ago, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

Nice print but I see what you mean. If nothing else, it's the headlights and molded in side mirrors that are deal breakers for me.

Thanks 

some of his bodies do actually have the inner arts of the light behind the solid lenses. I opened up the lights on one but it was just playing to see what could be done with it and i never did lenses for it but the inners were there. I think some of their newer bodies might have seperate lenses now 

[Fat Brian]

I need help putting a hole all the way through a model. I've cut a 2mm hole through the model in Blender but when I run it through the slicer it seals the hole a few millimeters down each axle tube. I'm trying to make it where I can put a metal rod through the axle for support. Are there any tricks to stop the slicer from trying to repair something that I want to be there?

[MeatMan]

12 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

I need help putting a hole all the way through a model. I've cut a 2mm hole through the model in Blender but when I run it through the slicer it seals the hole a few millimeters down each axle tube. I'm trying to make it where I can put a metal rod through the axle for support. Are there any tricks to stop the slicer from trying to repair something that I want to be there?

What slicer are you using, and how are you positioning it? Post a pic of it in your slicer w/supports.

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

17 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

I need help putting a hole all the way through a model. I've cut a 2mm hole through the model in Blender but when I run it through the slicer it seals the hole a few millimeters down each axle tube. I'm trying to make it where I can put a metal rod through the axle for support. Are there any tricks to stop the slicer from trying to repair something that I want to be there?

I've been using microsofts 3d Builder for things like this. I'll make the hole slightly larger than I need. If I need a 2mm hole, I'll make it 2.5mm or so. Then I'll send it through the slicer.

[Fat Brian]

13 hours ago, MeatMan said:

What slicer are you using, and how are you positioning it? Post a pic of it in your slicer w/supports.

So I noticed it only fills the hole in if I repair the model in Lychee slicer. If I just add the supports it leaves it but there is some ugliness I need to fix. This is the first model I've built in Blender so I'm still figuring out best practices. 

[Michael jones]

On 10/10/2025 at 1:48 PM, Fat Brian said:

I need help putting a hole all the way through a model. I've cut a 2mm hole through the model in Blender but when I run it through the slicer it seals the hole a few millimeters down each axle tube. I'm trying to make it where I can put a metal rod through the axle for support. Are there any tricks to stop the slicer from trying to repair something that I want to be there?

Did you run the 3d print tool box add on analyzer in Blender before exporting the file? There is a bunch of reasons for errors in the mesh, often after boolean operations, so depending on how you made the hole, might give some clues. Keep at it, I have been using blender for about 2 years now, and still learn new things often.

Edited October 11 by Michael jones

[Fat Brian]

9 hours ago, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

I've been using microsofts 3d Builder for things like this. I'll make the hole slightly larger than I need. If I need a 2mm hole, I'll make it 2.5mm or so. Then I'll send it through the slicer.

I made the hole a tad bigger than the rod, if I can get this figured out I will do a test print to make sure its the right size.

[Fat Brian]

1 hour ago, Michael jones said:

Did you run the 3d print tool box add on analyzer in Blender before exporting the file? There is a bunch of reasons for errors in the mesh, often after boolean operations, so depending on how you made the hole, might give some clues. Keep at it, I have been using blender for about 2 years now, and still learn new things often.

Yeah, I cut the hole with a boolean and also merged a few objects. It does seem to add a lot of chaos to the model so I might try to redo some things differently. 

[MrObsessive]

On 10/9/2025 at 8:48 PM, Fat Brian said:

I need help putting a hole all the way through a model. I've cut a 2mm hole through the model in Blender but when I run it through the slicer it seals the hole a few millimeters down each axle tube. I'm trying to make it where I can put a metal rod through the axle for support. Are there any tricks to stop the slicer from trying to repair something that I want to be there?

OK..............Here's what I found when using the Boolean Modifier in Blender, and then having the holes show up strange in Chitubox slicer. I work most of the time with .OBJ files, and I find that when the model is exported to the .STL format, that cleans the holes up much neater as it adds edges in that format, and keeps any sealing of the holes at bay. I don't know about Lychee-----I had that slicer program, and found it to be too glitchy for my tastes. 

Also, using the Boolean is very dependent on the surrounding mesh. If the mesh is made of large quads, the Boolean won't cut as cleanly after the file is exported because the surrounding mesh isn't as dense. If the part was created using Blender's SSM on Level 2 for example, that should make the wireframe mesh dense enough where the Boolean feature won't leave holes so "messy" after the object is exported. 

Hope this helps!

[Fat Brian]

On 10/11/2025 at 5:03 AM, MrObsessive said:

OK..............Here's what I found when using the Boolean Modifier in Blender, and then having the holes show up strange in Chitubox slicer. I work most of the time with .OBJ files, and I find that when the model is exported to the .STL format, that cleans the holes up much neater as it adds edges in that format, and keeps any sealing of the holes at bay. I don't know about Lychee-----I had that slicer program, and found it to be too glitchy for my tastes. 

Also, using the Boolean is very dependent on the surrounding mesh. If the mesh is made of large quads, the Boolean won't cut as cleanly after the file is exported because the surrounding mesh isn't as dense. If the part was created using Blender's SSM on Level 2 for example, that should make the wireframe mesh dense enough where the Boolean feature won't leave holes so "messy" after the object is exported. 

Hope this helps!

Thank you, that does help. The last time I was doing much 3d modeling the game would slow down if your vehicle was over about 3000 vertices so I was in the habit of working very economically. The main axle tube in particular is very light on vertices. I was also working in the .blend format so I may switch to .obj and see how it does. 

Here's what a 3000 vertice vehicle like.

Edited October 12 by Fat Brian

[Spex84]

On 10/11/2025 at 7:53 AM, Fat Brian said:

Here's what a 3000 vertice vehicle like.

Those are cool!  You can use way more triangles for a model that will be 3D printed though.

As for your model that has a hole that gets sealed off: have you used Alt+Z in Blender (x-ray mode) to see if you have overlapping/interpenetrating meshes that might be blocking the hole?

Next, try going to the Overlays button (top right of the viewport) and check the box for Face Orientation. I have mine set up so outward-facing triangles are blue, and inward are red. Red is bad!

If you have holes in the mesh and use the "repair object" or "repair mesh" options in the slicer, it might be "fixing" the problem by capping the open holes against your wishes. 

With Booleans, sometimes I make a copy of my object (and all its attendant Boolean modifiers) and convert it to mesh, then  hit Tab to go into Edit mode and see what carnage the booleans have wrought on the mesh. Sometimes there are vertices that didn't get joined correctly, or co-incident/overlapping triangles that need to be deleted and re-built with manual editing. Once it's cleaned up, I export it as STL.

I find Booleans can be so brutal and messy that I often just try to build my model without them, and only use them for situations where I know I'll need to go back and change the size/location of that element (ie, make a hole larger in diameter, or move it). 

Looking at your axle mesh, I see something that might be suspicious where the rectangular box section tapers to meet the cylindrical tube(the red lines in the attached image). I'm wondering if those are two separate objects? To put a hole clean through, they'd all have to be booleaned together first. "Join" makes the two meshes into one object, but it doesn't give them a single contiguous surface the way Boolean Union does.  

 

 

 

[Fat Brian]

18 hours ago, Spex84 said:

Those are cool!  You can use way more triangles for a model that will be 3D printed though.

As for your model that has a hole that gets sealed off: have you used Alt+Z in Blender (x-ray mode) to see if you have overlapping/interpenetrating meshes that might be blocking the hole?

Next, try going to the Overlays button (top right of the viewport) and check the box for Face Orientation. I have mine set up so outward-facing triangles are blue, and inward are red. Red is bad!

If you have holes in the mesh and use the "repair object" or "repair mesh" options in the slicer, it might be "fixing" the problem by capping the open holes against your wishes. 

With Booleans, sometimes I make a copy of my object (and all its attendant Boolean modifiers) and convert it to mesh, then  hit Tab to go into Edit mode and see what carnage the booleans have wrought on the mesh. Sometimes there are vertices that didn't get joined correctly, or co-incident/overlapping triangles that need to be deleted and re-built with manual editing. Once it's cleaned up, I export it as STL.

I find Booleans can be so brutal and messy that I often just try to build my model without them, and only use them for situations where I know I'll need to go back and change the size/location of that element (ie, make a hole larger in diameter, or move it). 

Looking at your axle mesh, I see something that might be suspicious where the rectangular box section tapers to meet the cylindrical tube(the red lines in the attached image). I'm wondering if those are two separate objects? To put a hole clean through, they'd all have to be booleaned together first. "Join" makes the two meshes into one object, but it doesn't give them a single contiguous surface the way Boolean Union does.  

 

 

 

Very observant, thats actually three meshes. The center part is a cylinder that I've extruded and resized to make the cover plate. The square part of the axle tube is a cube I rectangled and  Booleaned through the center piece, I then used vertical cylinders to cut the round tapers and cubes to flatten the edges to their proper size. I also beveled the ends. Then I used a boolean put a cylinder through the square part of the axle and then another cylinder to cut the hole. I made sure there were no faces that closed off the axle hole but it just wouldn't print that way. Even if I didn't repair the model the slicer closed the hole when it sliced it. I ended up cutting the model in half and printing tops and bottoms.

 

This is the first thing I've ever built in Blender and I'm still very new to the tools and best practices for modeling in it. I'm sure there are better ways to do what I'm doing once I figure them out.

[Spex84]

5 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

This is the first thing I've ever built in Blender and I'm still very new to the tools and best practices for modeling in it.

Looks like you're learning the best way...through experience! 
I didn't completely understand the steps you undertook to build the model, but I think maybe learning a bit more about editing on the mesh level (Mesh Edit Mode) could really help you avoid having to use a lot of Booleans. It's not necessarily a better way-- it just means fewer booleans equals fewer chances for something to go squirrely.
Maybe you already know this and I'm just over-explaining, but no harm done, right?

I started noodling around just to try and feel it out, here's what I came up with:

1.Made a large vertical cylinder and cut it in half at the centerline (so I can mirror it later). 
2.Selected some faces on the edge of the cylinder and extruded them to create the box-section axle.
3.Extruded the end faces once more and then scaled them down to create a tapered end to the box section.
4.Beveled the transition from the cylinder to the box section.
5.Added a cylinder and boolean Union'd it to the box section.
*Added a mirror modifier to make the model symmetrical across the centerline*
6.Create a long skinny cylinder to boolean the axle shaft hole through everything.