Why does a 3D model look different after exporting it for 3D printing?

[indiancad]

Have you ever created a detailed 3D solid that looks smooth in CAD, but appears faceted or loses some detail after exporting it for 3D printing?

 

One important thing to check is the mesh quality used during export. A surface that looks smooth on screen may be approximated by a limited number of triangular faces in the exported mesh.

 

I always recommend checking the exported STL in a mesh viewer before sending it for printing. Pay particular attention to curved surfaces, small holes, and fine details.

 

What settings or tools do you use to maintain curved surface quality when exporting CAD models for 3D printing?

[SLW210]

Most slicing software will alert you to issues, I usually end up reducing the faces in the slicer to speed up printing and often you get a message that the slicer will clean them up for you.

 

In CAD software, viewers, et.al. they may appear faceted or have a lack of detail, but may look just fine when printed.

 

My Bambu Studio slicer lets you inspect layer by layer, no need for a viewer.

 

STEP works better in some cases, but I am still testing different formats coming into the slicer and the quality and speed of the print.

 

I plan to start trying to work on getting them to .obj (it maintains color and texture) and other formats that are excepted by my slicer and see what works best.

 

Bambu Studio supports importing STL, STEP, 3MF, OBJ, AMF, and SVG files.

 

Of those file formats, STL is the simplest and if done correctly, they usually print out just fine, particularly if it is something simple to begin with.

 

Actually, models I make seem to be printing well and fairly fast, not so much the models you download from the marketplace, I almost always have to inspect and tweak those, if not outright redo from scratch.