3D Printing Prep using Rhino and Geomagic

DM Lab Tutorial Written by John Eberhart When you are ready to prepare your model for 3D Printing, you have to properly prepare the model so it can be printed. 1. The 3D printer cannot print 2D surfaces, they always have to be 3D objects. (Made out of joined 2D surfaces) If you have a 2D surface you need to print, use the offset surface commend in Rhino to offset the surface and make it a 3D volume. Note: Use the solid offset surface option in the command prompt. Single Surface (Will not 3D print) Same Surface offset into a solid volume. (Will 3D Print) 2. All 3D volumes have to be completely closed, no holes or gaps between the surfaces. When the 3D printer Software processes a 3D model for printing, it projects a series of cross section curves through the model, each cross section curve needs to be a closed curve, that way the software knows what to fill and what not to fill. If the object to be printed has a hole or a gap in the surface, it will create an open curve. Gap in Curve

Part with a gap in the surface, creating an open curve. Part will not 3D print

Part without a gap in the surface, creating a closed curve. Part will 3D print

GAP!

3D Part to be printed.

3D Printer creates cross-section curves for each print layer.

Any cross-section curves with a gap means the fill area cannot be calculated and the part will fail.

If all cross-section curves are closed, 3D printer can figure out fill patterns and the part will print.

3. You cannot have self intersecting surfaces or volumes, model has to be a SINGLE 3D volume. You have to create models that are made of one surface, you cannot have two volumes intersect each other. When you generate a STL model for the printer, a mesh will be created around each volume and not around the entire part, this causes issues with the 3D printer when it tries to print the 3D part. The easiest way to fix this is to use the Union tool to merge all closed polysurfaces into one. (Solid Menu>Union) If this does not work, you will have to manually reconstruct your objects so you do not have surface intersections.

Object with no intersecting surfaces-Good to 3D print.

Object with intersecting surfaces-Not Good for 3D printing

To show how the surfaces should be trimmed, I pulled the two volumes away from each other and you can see that each surface was notched to receive the other and there are no surface intersections or internal surfaces to the model. If your model has any intersecting surfaces, crossing surfaces, or internal surfaces, the 3D print will fail.

Preparing your models in Rhino for export as Stereolithography files:

If you have a polysurface model, a model made up of many surfaces, you need to do the following things in rhino. Step One: Make sure your model is scaled to the size of the 3D print you want to make Step Two: Move the model close to the Rhino Model Origin, and place the model in the positive X,Y, and Z quadrant. Step Three: Select all the surfaces to be exported and join them into a single poly surface.

Step Four: Deselect the model and try reselecting it. If the entire model does not reselect, then you have gaps in your model and you need to work on your model so all the parts of your model will join together

Joined Surfaces Non-Joined Surfaces - PROBLEM AREA

In this case, the feet are extruded cylinders which are already polysurfaces and cannot be joined. To fix this model, explode the polysurface and delete the cylinder surface that is between the cylinder and the rest of the part. Repeat Step 3 and see if the parts all join together.

All parts are now joined into one poly surface model. Note: If you cannot get your part to join, you will need to remake this part in rhino, taking extra care that the model is well built.

Step Five: Once your part is joined, select the joined part and choose: Mesh>From Nurbs Object

The following window will appear. Adjust the slider and hit the preview button. This will preview a new mesh model that we will export as an STL file. Note: For a square shaped or a model with mostly flat faces, you can use a lower polygon count. Models that are curvy, you should use a higher polygon count. Caution: Higher polygon count = Larger file size and more time to process down the road Click OK to create the new mesh file The two models will now be on top of each other. To select the mesh model, choose: Edit>Select Objects>Polygon Mesh

Selected Mesh Object

Step Six: Choose: File>Export Selected to save your model as an STL file.

Under Save as Type, choose: Stereolithography (*.stl) and Choose Save

Under File Type, Choose Binary

Make sure that Export open objects is checked. Click OK to save

For Advanced Users: If you uncheck export open objects and save the model AND the following error does NOT appear, you are good to go for 3D printing. If you see this error, Rhino will only save the portions of your model that is fully closed. You will need to go back and check the Export open Objects and proceed with the rest of this tutorial.

Exporting A single surface model for 3D printing:

In Rhino you can convert a single surface into a closed volume. To do this, select your surface and choose: Surface>Offset Surface

With the command active, in the prompt window, click on the Solid option, and if needed, you can flip the direction of the offset by clicking on FlipAll. At the end of the prompt, type in the thickness you want to offset your surface. In this case, .25 (1/4) The part will offset and create a closed model. At this point, follow the procedures on pages 3 and 4 for exporting the model as an STL file. However, if your model looks like this: Using the offset surface in Rhino will not work as the outside and inside of the model overlaps onto itself and the part will fail when trying to print. If you have this condition, only export the single surface as an STL file following the steps outlined on pages 3 and 4 of this tutorial. We can do a more sophisticated offset using Geomagic Studio, covered on page 15 of this tutorial.

Opening Geomagic Studio and Checking your Model For Printing:

To launch Geomagic Studio, under the start icon in Windows, choose: 3D Apps>Geomagic Studio Geomagic will open with its welcome screen.

Click Open to load your STL file.

Browse to your file and Choose Open IMPORTANT: At the pop up window below, choose the same units you were using in Rhino. If you get this wrong, your model will import either very large or very small.

The following window will then appear. Choose YES to have geomagic analyze your part and show you where your problem areas are. Mesh Doctor will highlight any issue areas in your model in red, green, and yellow. Note: Blue is normal.

Note: I intentionally made a hole here

Red Areas are surface overlaps, surface spikes, and other anomalies Green Edges are gaps between surfaces or surfaces with naked edges or a surface with a hole. Often when you convert a 3D nurbs model to a polygon model the edges of the surfaces do not align when they export. This can create very small holes when the model is saved. Yellow Areas are the back side of a surface - Note: if you have Yellow polygons mixed in with Blue polygons, then you have backward facing surfaces. If that is the case, you need to go back to Rhino and fix the model. See page 11 for instruction on that.

Within Mesh Doctor, there are a number of tools we can use to try and remove some of these errors. First Try: Run Auto Repair, this will try to remove as many simple issues as possible. Click the Auto Repair icon and then Click Apply After running the Auto Repair, check your model. Mesh Doctor repaired the model but there are still issues. This can deform your model, if it does, hit cancel and proceed to the next steps.

New Hole Appeared Gaps in surface still remain Hole in model

In this example, mesh doctor fixed some issues but I still have problems. This model is still not ready for printing. Warning: Mesh Doctor in trying to fix the model, may actually make it worse. If that is the case, undo the mesh doctors changes by hitting Control-Z, and process to the manual steps listed in the next pages. If after running mesh doctor and your model does not have any holes, there is one final step you need to perform before saving your model for 3D printing, which is make manifold. If your model looks good after running the mesh doctor, skip to page 13 and run the make manifold command.

Filling Holes and Thickening Parts:

Mesh doctor will fix most minor issues. However, if you have large holes in your model, you have to fix them individually. Under the Polygons Tab, choose the Fill Single icon. Note: By clicking on these arrows, you can scroll through each hole and repair it.

With the tool active, mouse over an open hole and it will highlight red. If you click it, it will fill the hole. Click back on the fill hole icon to end the command and apply the changes. Filled Hole Highlighted Hole edge

Model with filled holes. At this point Try Running the Make Manifold Command outlined on Page 13 of this tutorial. If it works you are ready to 3D print. If that did not work, the next thing you can try is the thicken command. Backwards Facing Polygons: Sometimes you will get a number of triangles that are backwards facing (Yellow) or have wild spikes to them. You can select and delete these faces on the model, and then use the fill holes tool to repair the hole.

The Thicken Command:

Often when you convert a 3D nurbs model to a polygon model the edges of the surfaces do not align when they export. This can create very small holes when the model is saved. The easiest way to fix this is to thicken the polygon mesh very slightly so that the model expands, a new mesh is created and the part will be closed. Under the polygons tab, choose Shell>Thicken Your model will turn Red and the thicken options will appear.

Under Thickness, set this to a very small amount. In this case .001 inches. Click Apply to see the change. You can adjust the thickness. Once it is good, click OK.

The final step is to run the Make Manifold Command to perform before saving your model for 3D printing, skip to page 13 and run the make manifold command.

Run Make Closed Manifold to verify your File will Print:

Run the Make Closed Manifold command to verify you have no issues with your 3D print. If you perform this test, and some or all of your model disappears, you still have issues. If the model blinks but is still there after performing Make Closed Manifold, you are good to go. Click on the Polygons Tab

Click on the Manifold Icon down arrow, and choose: Make Manifold (Closed)

My model disappeared when I ran this command. So this model still has problems. Hit Control Z to undo and your model will reappear

If your model disappears while running the Make Closed Manifold command, you have to go back and try to identify the problems. If you cannot figure out what the issue is, see a DM staff person.

Saving your Closed Manifold Model for 3D printing: WARNING: You have to successfully run the make Closed Manifold command BEFORE saving your part. For instruction on how to do this, see page 13 of this tutorial. Click on the Geomagic icon in the application ribbon. Choose Save as.

In the save as window, browse to the 3D printer drop box: \\archserver1\class folders\3D printer drop Box\your name\your file.stl

Make a folder with your name on it and choose that folder. Under File of type, choose STL (Binary) File (*.stl)

Click Save to save your file.

You are now ready to print your model. See a DM staff person and they can now print your file.

Offsetting a 2D Surface into a Uniform 3D solid:

Geomagic can offset and make solid very complex 2D surfaces that are suitable for 3D printing. Import your Surface model from Rhino and open it in Geomagic. (See Page 7) Under the Polygon Tab, Choose: Shell>Shell

Under Thickness, import a desired thickness. Note: If you want to reverse the direction the model will thicken, input a negative value. Hit Apply to preview the thickened part. You can adjust the thicken value and hit apply again to change, or if you like the thickness, choose: OK and the 3D part will be created.

Thickened Part

Follow the steps on page 13 and 14 to verify the part is ready to print and save your part to the printer drop box.