{"id":37529,"date":"2018-03-13T14:44:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T18:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=37529"},"modified":"2022-09-28T13:42:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T17:42:39","slug":"top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix","title":{"rendered":"The Top 3 Reasons Models Aren\u2019t Printable and How To Fix Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve done the design and 3D modeling work and you\u2019re excited to print your part. And yet, it fails the printability checks. Below are the top 3 reasons we see models coming up as unprintable and the ways you can fix them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thin Walls<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This error will most frequently limit the types of materials your product is printable in. Because our plastics are more forgiving, a model may pass printability in those materials but not in any metals. Whether it\u2019s unprintable in all or only some materials, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/tutorials\/3dprintingminimumwallthicknesstutorial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u2019s a helpful resource<\/a> for breaking down that wall that\u2019s keeping your model from being printable (pun intended).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Floating Shells<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Loose shells are pieces of your model that are separate or unconnected from the base portion of the model. In some cases, this may be intentional (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/forum\/t\/help-understanding-loose-shells.38352\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">like this<\/a>) because you want the parts separated. If not, try our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/20166-two-new-visualizations-in-shapeways-3d-tools-bounding-box-and-parts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">part count visualization tool<\/a> to help you identify unconnected parts and catch problems where you had intended to print a single, connected model.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-manifold Edges<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This means that your model has failed print checks with a \u201cnon-manifold\u201d or \u201cmixed normals\u201d error. These can be triggered by a number of things <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/tutorials\/fixing-non-manifold-models\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">so head on over to this page<\/a> to find out how you can fix the model.<\/p>\n<p>Now that you&#8217;re ready to make it printable, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/create\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">upload your latest model<\/a>&nbsp;here.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"btn-primary solo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/create\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PRINT YOUR DESIGN NOW<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve done the design and 3D modeling work and you\u2019re excited to print your part. And yet, it fails the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":37596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[489],"tags":[2412,2411,479],"class_list":["post-37529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-products-and-design","tag-how-to-make-3d-models-printable","tag-printability","tag-3-tutorials"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/wallthicknesslightpoem-blog-image.jpg","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Top 3 Reasons Models Aren\u2019t Printable and How To Fix Them - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You\u2019ve done the design and 3D modeling work and you\u2019re excited to print your part. And yet, it fails the printability checks. Below are the top 3 reasons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lise Keeney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lise Keeney\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/94c7d0b30632cae5756b5d7c5ccaaa00\"},\"headline\":\"The Top 3 Reasons Models Aren\u2019t Printable and How To Fix Them\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-13T18:44:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-28T17:42:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix\"},\"wordCount\":246,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/wallthicknesslightpoem-blog-image.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"how to make 3d models printable\",\"printability\",\"Tutorials\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Products and Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix\",\"name\":\"The Top 3 Reasons Models Aren\u2019t Printable and How To Fix Them - Shapeways Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/top-3-reasons-models-arent-printable-fix#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/wallthicknesslightpoem-blog-image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-13T18:44:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-28T17:42:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"You\u2019ve done the design and 3D modeling work and you\u2019re excited to print your part. 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