Simplify3d’s repair functions aren’t too great. Simplify3d removes a lot of material/mesh when slicing a model (with screenshots). Best fix is using “separate connected surfaces.”

So, I’m in the process of printing this Iron Man suit from Thingiverse. Some of the models have needed small holes filled over the course of things, but this one particular model didn’t appear to need it at first. In Simplify3d it initially shows it as one solid model. I printed the model out without glancing at the gcode preview, and found a LOT of holes. When going back to the gcode preview, I found out that Simplify3d actually caused the issue and not my printer. Here are some screenshots of the two largest culprits I’ve tried using all of the repair settings; nothing finds any issues, except the “find self intersecting surfaces” but I see no way to fix that.After realizing that all of my problem areas are “self-intersecting surfaces” I did a bit more playing around. The “heal” and “merge all outlines into a single solid model” functions were next to useless and didn’t help much. Then I googled around a bit, and found out that by going to “mesh” and “separate connected surfaces” Simplify3d won’t spread all of the parts like a program like Cura would. It actually kept them all aligned…I went to the print preview and, eureka! The preview showed me exactly what I wanted to see, and appeared to have good connections/infill with all of the “split” parts. I at first had the “merge all outlines” setting checked, but that ended up filling in even the holes that I need to have open…with it unchecked everything seems fine.Sorry for my wordiness; this post started off as a request for help, but I ended up solving the problem on my own as I was typing. I’m hoping that this will help anyone else having this same problem.TL;DR When Simplify3d decides to add a bunch of holes to your model because of “self intersecting surfaces” then all you need to do is simply use the “separate connected surfaces” option, don’t move anything around, and uncheck the “merge all outlines into single model” option if your model has any planned holes in it. http://ift.tt/2mdGun6

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