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I started fiddling with Blender this week as I bought a 3D model of a backpack that I wanted to 3D print. In order to get Lychee to print it, I had to use a back-and-forth combination of Blender and an stl repair service online. When Lychee was finally able to fill the holes and accept the geometry, I realized that the model that I originally thickened was still hollow inside. When printed, certain surfaces fail to print because it is too thin. Right now I'm trying to use Tinkercad to import my stl file, make it hollow, put on solid over it to make a mold, make the mold hollow, and fill the mold with a solid to get a positive of my 3D model.

It doesn't seem to work, and I'd like to ask for some help to find a solution. Please see below what my 3D model looks like when sliced :

enter image description here

Hollowed mold, solid, and 3D model that is part of the hollowed mold

I used the displacement tool to thicken my model because the solidify tool was causing issues when importing the model in Lychee. Maybe I was doing something wrong?

0scar
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pastisjaunisse
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2 Answers2

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I may be misunderstanding something, but was the model intended as a game asset rather than a 3D print, as it sounds like it may be a non-manifold geometry designed to be textured and displayed on screen.

Normally, if a model is designed for 3D printing it will be fully manifold and won't require thickening as it will be a single solid object.

As you are already familiar with blended, import the model into blender, select edit mode and then select to edit vertices. Select all, and then press M to Merge, and select Merge by Distance.

Play with the distance settings until you are happy that you are not loosing too much detail.

This should make the object manifold, or close enough to being manifold for Lychee slicer to do the rest.

Import it into Lychee and then do a repair. This should (technically), give you one solid object with no holes in the middle.

Then Use Lychee's own built in function to hollow it out. I tend to find that 1.5 - 3mm is best, depending on the the size of the model.

Aaargh Zombies
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If the thickness (Solidify) was added in Blender, you can try unchecking the only rim check box on the Solidify modifier.

Greenonline
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belloalmu
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