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netfabb Professional 5 User Manual

1. SIMPLE CUTTING 84 the part If the result is smoothed the corners of the new shell are rounded off and a better triangle mesh is created The Option Create Slice exports the respective object as a slice file and inserts it into the Slices section of your project Therefore no triangle mesh has to be calculated You can edit the layersize according to your needs and the roundness of offsets figure 6 17 If it is necessary for the offset to form a curve the angle you specify for the roundness is the maximum angle of two adjacent corner points of the offset with the original corner point as apex of the angle Consequently the offset curve becomes rounder and more precise if the maximum angle is reduced Output E Output type Create slice Output parameters Layersize 0 1000 mm Roundness 10 Figure 6 17 If you create a slice instead of a part you can set output parameters for layer thickness and roundness 6 4 Simple Cutting Simple cuts parallel to the main planes can be prepared in the standard interface as all options can be found in the tabsheet figure 6 18 Parts can be cut in a right angle across the X Y and Z axes at specific coordinates with a cutting plane parallel to the other two axes figure 6 19 By clicking on Execute cut the Free Cut module is opened chapter 6 5 with the same cutting plane in place There you can adjust further settings and execute the cut If you have set cutting lines
2. netfabb Professional 5 User Manual Copyright by netfabb GmbH 2010 supportO netfabb com Version August 7 2013 This document shall not be distributed without the permission of netfabb GmbH CONTENTS Contents 1 STL Files and Triangle Meshes 1 1 112 1 3 1 4 Val e 20 A A AR AAA AA a a Closedness di e Ave ewe a a aa db Oremtabilit ys ema A e Do Self Intersections 0 00 0 eee eee ee ees 2 Program Overview 2l Zia 2 3 2 4 29 nN e E E aa ee a a de te Bee e A The Viewin Screen de g e k dak hak odd eb ae we wR A Prostran Control s ss 4424444444 le o 4 94 eee Daw ew a The PaO orto AS ES Ae 4 File Format Overview 3 Project Management 3 1 J2 3 3 3 4 Stat PrOjeeh 2 dio ah ar a A we ot Hand at Hatt So IN eget a gae AI Dk OREM ae ie ea et EE O AE AI ek ca he S20 Pile Preview Browser s ima 42a ee a ee S24 Puto PL Piles ag 4 208 o A BBE be Hn GS 3 2 5 Professional Tool CAD Import Save and EXPO s s oc los doe Goh B dee eGo boon ee Fo O O o ee a ee a2 Export Projectt o SILD ars pad sad AA Se D0 EPOC Patt asa nee be eb e bokeh de hs dc Prints and Screenshots is s ios a eh ee a o o ANN 12 14 16 18 21 21 CONTENTS 2 4 Viewing Options 39 Al Se LS Anca da dnd Ut Gach Sede ht os oe a ee E i 40 4 2 Centering and Zooming e 42 4 3 Displaying Options e 44 AA Mesh VIEWER eae ca a Boks Bas Rode Bete Roe Bo 47 5
3. Figure 7 17 Left A Self Intersection with two shells cutting through each other Right All triangles belonging to a double surface in the interior of the part are marked orange By splitting off self intersections intersecting surfaces and double surfaces will be cut and divided along the cutting line resulting in border edges along the intersections If the surfaces are part of closed shells sections of this shell will be cut off and can be selected and worked on separately as own shells The triangle mesh is changed without changing the shape so that neighboring bor der edges have identical coordinates and you get a valid triangulation across the two shells This is done to provide easier processing when repairing the intersection e g by stitching the triangles If you remove self intersections the intersections are split off resulting in terior shells and double surfaces are removed and surfaces on the outside of the part are reconnected As a result a valid shell is created figure 7 18 Self intersections can only be removed if the part has no holes SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 118 Figure 7 18 Here you can see the interior of a part with removed self intersections Interior surfaces are removed and a valid shell is created 7 5 3 Stitch Triangles With this function adjacent triangles are connected Therefore points of tri angles in an identical position and the adjacent edges are merged These edges
4. 90 180 or 270 or insert an angle in the empty field Below define the X Y or Z or your own free axis as axis of rotation Selected parts Current selection Sphere Current position x 160 57 mm Y Current size x 50 00 mm Y Rotation center Xx 185 57 mm Y Parameters 0 X axis O Y axis Z axis O free axis 0 00 0 00 1 00 Keep window open Figure 5 9 The dialog box for rotating parts If the box Keep window open is ticked you can apply the changes by Rotate the dialog will stay open and you immediately can rotate the part again POSITION AND SCALE 61 5 5 3 Align Parts e By clicking on the Align icon or pressing F7 the align mode is activated Then with double clicks on surfaces of parts you can align them into a plane parallel to the X Y plane the basis of the platform Consequently the respective part is rotated You get back to normal selection mode by pressing F3 or clicking on the respective icon in the toolbar depicting the mouse cursor 5 5 4 Scale Parts 2 By clicking on the Scale icon choosing Scale in the Part menu or context menu or by pressing Ctrl S the dimensions of one or more selected parts can be changed In the Scale Parts dialog window the current selection the part s position size and its scale center are displayed First you can insert the factor by which the length along the respective axis is mul tiplied figure 5 10 With fa
5. Update auto update Figure 7 2 Information about the properties and damages of the part are given in the tabsheet When you are finished with your repair operations the repaired object is inserted into the project by clicking on the Apply button in the tabsheet by double clicking on the green tick next to the repair in the project tree or in the context menu after right clicking on the repair On request you can either replace the original part or keep the original and add the repaired part as additional part 4 With the Undo function in the Edit menu you can go back to different stages of your repair With Redo you can perform the process you have undone again Repair functions are available in the tabsheet in the Repair and Mesh Edit menus in the menu bar and in context menus depending on where you right click on the screen REPAIR VIEWING OPTIONS 107 7 2 Repair Viewing Options The viewing options in general are very similar to those in the normal interface All perspective settings and the zoom functions with the mouse are identical chapter 4 7 2 1 Zoom and visualization The default zooming options are replaced as there is only one part on the screen and single triangles can be selected They are Q Zoom on Part The part is moved into the center of the screen and the zoom is reset so that the part is adjusted to the edges of the screen 4 Zoom on Selected Triangles The zoom is reset so that selected trian
6. two and a half dimensional file formats Screenshots can be exported and saved for illustration purposes This chapter explains those functions in detail Most of them are available in the project menu figure 3 1 Edit Part Extras Vi E Mew pr Open Add part File preview browser Import CAD File H Save LJ Save as H Export project to STL Split large STL file Load Engine Eh Print Eiaa Configure Printer x Exit Figure 3 1 The Project Menu OPEN FILES 25 3 1 Start Project New With this function in the Project menu a new project without any content 1s created New files or objects can be inserted Warning Any changes made on previously opened projects are discarded Undo Redo The Undo function in the Edit menu reverts the last operation on parts in the default module Only simple actions such as moving parts or starting new modules can be undone If an operation has replaced the original part such as cutting or a repair 1t cannot be retrieved and the operation cannot be undone With Redo you can perform the process you have undone again 3 2 Open Files 3 2 1 Open This function is available in the Project menu in the toolbar or by double clicking on the Open icon in the project tree You can open netfabb project files STL files and other three dimensional files created with CAD software or slice files previously saved in netfabb The objects defined by those
7. Target Triangle Count i 14636 Target Triangle Count om 14636 O as low as possible as low as possible Conditions Max Deformation 0 0000 om Deformation Max Deformation 5 0000 mm Max collapsed edge length 0 5000 mm Max edge length Check for edgelength Mode E Fast mode Figure 7 32 Left For a quick triangle reduction Right For a more accurate reduction Below there are a few important condition you can define for the triangle reduction The maximum deformation represents the maximum change in volume of the part The maximum collapsed edge length determines the maximum lenth of edges which are unified Please note that wrong condition settings for example extremely high values may lead to unsatisfying results such as strong distortion or self intersections figure 7 33 In the advanced reduction you can choose the Fast mode which works faster but a little less accurate This is very useful if you just want to test reduction figures 7 7 3 Z Compensation Whenever working with laser machines it is likely that the first layer of a model is printed thicker than the following If you re making small parts this can cause real problems as the bottom of the part will be lengthened in the z axis and the shape of the part 1s changed severly With the Z Compensation it s possible to counteract his effect Select the part and go to the repair mode The Z Compensation is available in the
8. When you choose convert to model in the context menu an own dialog box is opened in which you can edit accuracy and refinement and you can choose to smooth the result figure 9 36 The accuracy determines the preciseness of the cal culation For the export which raster cells in a three dimensional raster are occupied by a slice layer Those cells will be part of the STL With this procedure you get an effect of steps in the part as big as the accuracy rastersize and the file might need very much triangles Thus even small and simple parts may have a huge data vol ume Refinement and smoothing are measurements against this steps effect To make sure that bottom and top are closed check the respecting box Export Image Files If you export a slice as image files or vector graphics netfabb creates an image of each slice layer either as SVG DXF PNG BMP or PS file Each layer is exported into a separate image file figure 9 37 In the specific export settings for SVG Scalable Vector Graphics BMP Windows EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 180 Convert slice to mod al Current selection Current selection Kegel Current position X 6 00 mm Y 0 00 mm Z 0 00 mm Current size X 160 00 mm Y 160 00 mm Z 100 00 mm Parameters Conversion Accuracy Calculation Refinement p 125 times finer Smoothen result Close top and bottom Figure 9 37 Left A slice file on the screen Right The depiction of the same slice
9. stormtrooper stl ed Vase sli Vase stl Figure 3 7 A preview of a Slice file zoomed in OPEN FILES 31 3 2 4 Split STL Files This option is available in the Project menu Effectively this function per forms the cutting and scaling of a part before opening it STL files with a great complexity are split into smaller sections before adding them to a project Thus it is possible to load only a section of the part which can save a lot of processing time Additionally the file size can be reduced by scaling the object before opening it When you start the feature you have to choose a file in a file browser Then the parameters for the function can be set in a dialog box The STL Information specifies the size of the outbox of the part the number of triangles and the size of the STL file The outbox is a cuboid space enclosing the part In the bottom half you can insert your specifications for the splitting and the scaling of the file With the first three fields you can scale the part by setting percentage values for the dimensiona along the X Y and Z axes Next you can enter a value for each axis to set the number of split parts into which the original part is cut along this axis The part is split into parts with equal dimen sions along one axis The file suffix will be added to the file names figure 3 8 3 2 STL Decompositio STL Information File name Outbox Triangle Count 366 STL Files
10. tools If you click on Use this mode as default or Use this tool as default this THE MEASURING TOOL 150 option will be activated at the start of all measurings from then on figure 8 17 FN Ll Sc me mode as as defaut Lo Illa lla Use this tool as default Use this tool as default Figure 8 17 After a right click on the buttons in the tabsheet you can make the respective options your default settings for future measurings 3 1 8 Lock and Unlock View To the right of the measuring in the project tree there is a little icon to lock or unlock the perspective This only plays a role when a second measuring or a test of the part has been added and you switch back from that other measurement or test If the view is not locked and you return to the measuring click on it in the project tree it always takes over the perspective from the element opened before If you want netfabb to remember a perspective lock the view The perspective of the measuring is saved at the moment you do so As long at the view stays locked netfabb always goes back to that perspective when you return to the measuring It does not matter to which perspective you have rotated the view in the same or in another measuring That way you can choose a separate perspective for each of your measurings and keep this perspective for subsequent tests TEST 151 8 2 Test The testing function can be started in the toolbar and adds a new test
11. If you insert 1 0 the hatch lines are upwards shifted by one mm with each layer going from the top to the bottom layer With the rotation and the translation per layer you can avoid that the filling hatches are exactly on top of each other With some production methods this could lead to lower part quality and instability EDIT FILLING 172 Figure 9 23 Two consecutive layers of the same slice file with a rotation of 20 per layer Some machines for example metal sinter machines require a specific direction the laser traces the filling The Sort type controls this tool path of the laser and you can choose between the five options no sorting or to sort from right to left from left to right from top to bottom and from bottom to top The filling is inserted as new slice file when you click on OK It is treated as inde pendent object in the Slice Commander and in the project tree figure 9 24 ee Figure 9 24 Here the filling is moved out of the contour as an independent slice EDIT FILLING 173 9 6 2 Hatch cutting Whenever a countour protrudes into a filling you can cut the filling along this contour Select both parts open the context menu the Extras submenu and click on Hatchcutting As a result a new hatch file will be created figure 9 25 Figure 9 25 Left Blue contours protrude into the black filling Right
12. It is also available in a reduced version in TRIANGLE REDUCTION 102 the Repair mode see 7 7 2 In the triangle reduction netfabb unifies triangles to create bigger ones Its benefit is to reduce the file size and speed up the workflow When you start the function a frame appears on the lower right corner with the tabs Triangle reduction and Smoothing You can see the number of triangles the original part has and as soon as you calculate any changes how many triangles the part will have Triangle reduction Smoothing Number of triangles 200576 Reduced Part Original Part Settings triangle reduction Target y 140288 tri 50 0 e Max deformation fi 1 00 mm Max edge length 2489 mm a nose Display Show triangles Show original mesh Setting a Triangle reduction Smoothing Number of triangles Original Part 280576 Reduced Part 36474 Settings triangle reduction Target g 36475 tri 13 0 Max deformation B 1 81 mm Max edge length 24 39 mm E fast mode Reset Recalculate Display 7 Show triangles Show original mesh Setting Autoupdate Save settings OK Cancel Figure 6 42 Up The original mesh Down Reduced triangles In the Settings below reduce the triangle count to a maximum deformation repre sents the maximum change in the surface of the part The maximum edge length determines the maximum leng
13. Q Aad part a Remove Change color B Level of Detail Show triangle mesh a Show selected parts a Hide selected parts a Hide unselected parts Extended Extras Figure 2 9 The context menus after right clicking on the same part in the screen and in the project tree Again the available functions in the toolbar depend on the current user interface The repair module for example has a different toolbar to the normal screen figure 2 11 PROGRAM CONTROL 20 House 100 amp Pyramid 100 Remove park repair D Flower 100 Appie patrapi I D Spider fixed 1 Figure 2 10 The context menu after right clicking on a part repair in the project tree PAG OOOO SBRHOBA ht 2arvpeeQA Fa my Figure 2 11 The standard toolbar top and the repair module toolbar bottom Functions in the toolbar and context menus are also available in the menu bar They are sorted into the menus Project Edit Part Extras and View In the Set tings menu you can change general options of the software figure 2 12 In some modules e g the repair specific menus are added gt a i z HOG A a E Figure 2 12 The menu bar Additional functions are available in the tabsheet in the bottom half of the context area Some features here cannot be found in the menu bar In the default module the tabsheet provides options for the cutting function provides the dimensions of selected parts and tells you h
14. Show Points Right Show Filling SLICE SELECTION AND HANDLING 161 Figure 9 8 Zoom in to see the grid lines the filling 9 4 3 Move Rotate Scale and Mirror Slices The positioning of slices is very similar to the positioning of three dimensional parts These operations can be conducted either by drag amp drop or by inserting specific values in a dialog box figure 9 10 If you move parts by drag amp drop the values for the scale translation and rotation are updated live in the tabsheet as you move the mouse y Selected slices can be moved around on the X Y plane by drag amp drop click ing either on the selection box or on the green square in the center of the slice Alternatively by clicking on the Move Slices icon in the toolbar or choosing Move in the context menu a dialog box for manual transformations is opened At the top of the dialog the current selection the part s position and size are specified Then you can set specific coordinates along all three axes for moving the slice If the box relative translation is ticked the coordinates you enter represent the direction of the movement from the current position Or you can enter the coordinates for the absolute position with reference to the the origin with the X and Y coordinates zero Abbildung 9 9 If the box Keep window open is ticked you can apply the changes by Translate the dialog will stay open and you immediately can move the part agai
15. When you use these arrows to move parts netfabb will always move the part along one of the three axes The axes are assigned to the arrow buttons depending on the current perspective PART ANALYSIS 73 Chapter 6 Part Edit Three dimensional parts can be edited in various ways Features include the analysis of parts simple part editing functions such as mirroring inverting and converting in size according to the length units mm an inch and the conducting of simple cuts Furthermore any number of parts can be merged to one part and any part consisting of more than one shell can be split into equivalent parts Also new shells and offsets can be created on the basis of existing objects cutting planes can be defined freely and parts can be unified subtracted or an intersection of parts can be created with the Boolean Operations Module Further part editing functions are part of the repair module chapter 7 1 These are features for which you have to work with the triangle mesh more specifically 6 1 Part Analysis _ Forthe analysis of a part you have five options A standard analysis an anal a ysis of upskins and downskins of the center of gravity the wall thickness and the analysis of the part s shadow area For users who have purchased netfabb Professional before version 4 7 only the standard analysis might be visible because of license issues In that case please contact us at support netfabb com You will get a new
16. With the free cutting tool you can not only cut parts along the main planes See You can define a cutting plane individually and then cut parts along this plane or you can draw a polygon on your screen which will be used as a cutting line The tool can be started by an icon in the toolbar in the Extras menu or in the Extras submenu of the context menu The functions for the Free Cut can be activated in the tabsheet If you have already worked with the tool in this session the last cutting plane is still in position If you have set a cutting plane with the simple cutting tool and start the free cut there this plane will be in place when you start the Free Cut With the two registers in the tabsheet you can choose if you want to cut with a plane or draw a polygon 6 5 1 Free Cut with a Cutting Plane First Placing of the Cutting Plane To insert a cutting plane you have three options at a right angle to the skin of a part tangentially along the skin of a part or defined by clicking on three points on the part The cutting plane is by default bright blue and has points in its center at its corners and in the center of its edges figure 6 24 When placing the plane you can hold the left mouse button to get a preview of the plane The plane is inserted when you release the button The size of the plane is adjusted to the current screen depending on zoom and perspective Cuts can be performed by clicking on the Cut button at the
17. X 10 07 Parameters Scale factor Xx 1 0000 Scale percentage X 100 00 Target size X 20 15 mm Fix scaling ratio Y Keep window open Figure 9 10 Dialog box for scaling slices 9 4 4 Merging and Grouping When two parts or more are selected the slices can be unified to one single part The original shapes will remain and can be seperated again later G In the submenu Extended in the context menu there s the option Merge G Slices The slices will become one slice file which includes all contours of the original Overlapping contours will remain re With Clear grouping you can reverse this unification And very importantly Y editing operations you conduct with slices such as merging slices can also be undone by this function Thereafter the slice resulting from the operation is removed and a new group 1s created which will contain the original slices 9 5 Edit Slices Many of these functions are also available in the three dimensional data manage ment However in the Slice Commander you have the advantage that calculations are performed much quicker as complex 3D tasks are replaced by 2D tasks This reduces the complexity of the data handling EDIT SLICES 164 The result of editing slices can be seen when the box Preview Calculations at the bottom of the tabsheet is ticked However this can require much calculation time when you scroll through the slices If Preview Calculation
18. changing perspectives and shifting the view are the same as in the standard interface PROGRAM CONTROL 18 Figure 2 6 Use drag amp drop on the green brackets to rotate part Figure 2 7 Change perspective and zoom with right mouse button and scroll button 2 3 Program Control Apart from these intuitive handling elements in the viewing screen as described above there are several ways to use the program s functionality as most features can be found in several places Firstly they are available via context menus which are opened by a click with the right mouse button The content of the context menus varies greatly depending on where you click It may differ with every section in the project tree with a part in the viewing screen and empty space in the viewing screen and with different user interfaces or modules e g repair measuring figure 2 9 and 2 10 The toolbar above the viewing screen offers many features with one mouseclick PROGRAM CONTROL 19 Figure 2 8 Left The two dimensional view on the slice of a part in the slice com mander Right A damaged part in the repair module a Remove H Export part Duplicate Rename Change color Center View Here Level of Detail 6 on Y Show triangle mesh Scale Show selected parts Hide selected parts 2 y tp wa a a Hide unselected parts Extended Extras a Create new group a Create group with selected parts
19. layer in a PNG file Bitmap and PNG Portable Network Graphics files you can choose between two registers one for the export target and one for export parameters For the Export Target you first have to choose in a dropdown menu 1f you want to copy the image file in a directory or if you want to save them in a TAR or ZIP archive file Then fill in a file name which will be supplemented by the layer number of each image file and choose a target directory figure 9 38 When exporting SVG files these are the only options for the export target but for PNG and BMP files there are several other options EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 181 General Export Settings Slicefile Part 1 Start height 24 8000 T End height 75 2000 Layersize 0 1000 Layercount 1001 Specific Export Settings Export format Portable Network Graphics PNG Export target Export parameter Export type as separate files File name Resolution 300 00 DPI Size 2363 x 2339 px E enable anti aliasing Use Advanced Properties E Export Monochrome Images Advanced Properties Position Left 0 Top g Center Image Figure 9 38 The settings for the export target for image files Below the field for entering your file name you can change the resolution and the size in pixels of the slice images Those two settings depend on each other and if you change one the other is adjusted automatically If the box Enable anti aliasing is ticke
20. you can see if you have triangles with invalid orientation Figure 7 20 The inside of triangles is red so that flipped triangles can be seen easily If the part is not orientable a dialog is opened where you will be asked if netfabb should try to make it orientable figure 7 21 However as a warning this does not always work and may destroy the mesh So to be sure it is recommended that you apply the repair before executing this function optionally without replacing the original and start the repair module again Not orientable surfaces can come into being for instance because of self intersections or after the orientation is ignored during the stitching of triangles SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 120 Mesh is not orientable Shall netfabb try to fix this This could destroy your mesh Figure 7 21 In a dialog box you are asked whether the part shall be made ori entable 7 5 5 Remove Double Triangles Removes triangles using the same three corner points irrespective of their orientation One of the triangles is kept figure 7 22 Figure 7 22 Triangles with the same coordinates but different orientation 7 5 6 Select Overlapping Triangles Overlapping triangles are those that touch or almost touch each other no mat ter what angle or orientation they have The Overlapping triangles detection function is available in the context menu after a right click on the screen In the dialogue you can determine
21. 2 Slice Viewing Options 204 158 9 4 3 Move Rotate Scale and Mirror Slices 161 9 4 4 Merging and Grouping 004 163 Oi JEG SHCES AAA EMEA EAS ADA 163 9 5 1 Boolean Operations amp Removing Self Intersections 164 CONTENTS 9 5 2 Create Offsets of Slices 04 4 9 5 3 Point Reduction 080808084 oO ce Cite 2 ar gap oh eked a amp ae we hs e 9 6 1 Create Filling 9 6 2 Hatch cutting 9 6 3 Convert contours hatches 9 7 Export and Save Slices 10 Settings 10 1 General Settings 10 2 Change Colors 10 3 Edit File Associations Index 166 168 169 169 173 173 174 185 185 193 195 196 Chapter 1 STL Files and Triangle Meshes The STL format is the industrial standard for handling triangulated meshes STL files contain a plain list of three dimensional corner point coordinates and flat trian gles The triangles also referred to as faces are defined by three corner points and have an inside and an outside Adjacent triangles may use common corner points and share the same edges which results in a coherent triangle mesh figure 1 1 The generality and simplicity of this concept makes STL files compatible to a lot of applications Figure 1 1 Parametric Surface and Triangulated Representation However they do not contain any topological information about the mesh This causes typical
22. 79 6 2 Simple Part Editing Several simple part editing functions are available in the standard mode including inverting the orientation of parts mirroring parts converting the size of parts accord ing to length units merging parts and separating the shells of a part They apply to selected parts and are available in the Extended submenu of the context menu of the part s or in the Part menu figure 6 8 Extended H Invert part Extras d ald Mirror ou Shells bo parts t Convert mesh units d Figure 6 8 The Extended submenu in the context menu 6 2 1 Invert Part All triangles of the last selected part are inverted with the outside turned in side and the inside turned outside Parts with a valid orientation thereby be come totally side inverted and consequently get a negative volume figure 6 9 In verted parts are made valid The shape of an object is not changed by this process You can either replace the original part or keep both Figure 6 9 Valid and inverted cylinders The inverted cylinder has regular specifi cations but a negative volume SIMPLE PART EDITING 80 6 2 2 Mirror The selected Part is mirrored across the Y Z plane in direction of the X axis i While the triangles of the new part have the same Y and Z coordinates as the original the X coordinates are turned around in relation to the overall X dimensions of the part Thus the mirrored part has the same overall dime
23. Area 609 09 cm E gt Height 199 28 mm Triangles 13120 1 of 3 parts is selected y Figure 5 1 Information about selected parts is given in the tabsheet You can select as many parts as you like If you hold Shift parts are added to the selection by clicking on them By holding Ctrl parts can be both added to or removed from the selection by clicking on them If you select parts in the project tree the Shift key works differently as holding Shift and clicking on a part selects all parts in the list between the part clicked on and the last part selected without Shift By holding the left mouse button and dragging a selection rectangle with the mouse you can select everything within that frame figure 5 2 Figure 5 2 Select several parts at once with help of a selection rectangle In the context menu of the viewing screen 1f you do not right click on a part but SELECT PARTS on empty space you can either select all parts select no part to clear the selec tion or invert the selection With that last option selected parts are deselected and unselected parts are simultaneously selected figure 5 3 All three options are also available in the Edit menu a Add part Rs Create primitives ire Platform overview E Figure 5 3 Left If you right click on empty space in the screen the context menu offers general options for your selection Right The inverted selection of figure 5 2 Addit
24. Filling was cut along the blue contours and results in two filling sections 9 6 3 Convert contours hatches Cr This feature is available in the submenu Extra in the context menu As desribed above there are Additive Manufacturing machines that automatically fill your slices If you decidedly don t want any filling it s recommended to convert the contours into hatches The contours now behave like the hatches of a filling and can t be filled themselves again In the Hatch conversion dialog you can perform the calculations either way from contours to hatches or from hatches to contours A high accuracy creates an exact calculation but may lead to long calculation times It s also possible to filter Contours Hatches which means that everything you have selected will be checked for certain parameters and those contours hatches that full fill the parameters will be copied You can either preserve hatches and or closed contours Open contours can be retained too but 1f you want to actually build them you ll have to convert them into hatches afterwards The function Connect Conours is compareable to the Stitching in the Repair mode see chapt XX Open edges that are lying close to each other will be connected With Filter Small Contours very tiny and unnecessary countrous won t be copied You can define the Minimum Contour Area in cmi EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 174 Figure 9 26 Left Part with hatches and contours
25. Maximum edge length For good faces 0 001 mm Figure 10 5 The settings for the repair module Measuring For the measuring you can choose in dropdown menus which measuring mode and which option for setting anchor points shall be set when you start the measuring module Part Labeling Part Renaming The part renaming determines the name parts get automatically after they are modi fied The name of the original is always part of the new name To change renaming settings double click on a function in the list or click on the button which ap pears to the right of the function after you click on it once figure 10 6 A dialog appears to change the automatic renaming You can insert what will be added before or after the part name in the text fields left and right of part name Below you can see a preview of how your parts will be named Part name always refers to the name of the original part With the button Set to defaults at the bottom of the dialog you can restore the default naming for that particular function figure 10 7 The default setting for repaired parts for example is that repaired is added to the original part name Create Hollow Part Inner Offset Outer Offset and Hollowing Shell refer to the respective options for the function Create shell Group of shells of one part and Group of shells of multiple parts stand for the group names of the groups into which the shells are moved with Shells
26. Parts can be unified an intersection of parts can be created and parts can be subtracted from one another Thereby the triangle meshes of the parts are retriangulated resulting in new closed and oriented volume triangle meshes The operations are available in the Actions section at the bottom of the tabsheet and in the context menu by right clicking on the screen Unify Parts To enable this operation all parts must be green Effectively it unifies all parts of the operation removing all resulting intersections and interior sur faces and triangles figure 6 38 Create Intersection Al All parts are required to be green for this operation The new part created by this feature includes only the cross section of the volumes of two or more parts The triangle mesh is created around this common volume figure 6 39 BOOLEAN OPERATIONS 100 Figure 6 38 Left Two parts before the Boolean operation Center A preview of the unification in the Boolean Operations screen Right The resulting part Figure 6 39 An intersection of a box and a cylinder Subtract Parts For this function at least one part must be marked red and situated in the right Parts field A new part is then created as a unification of all green parts but with all cross sections with overlapping red parts being cut out figure 6 40 Figure 6 40 Red parts are subtracted from the green parts TRIANGLE REDUCTION 101 Settin
27. Right after filtering with pre serve hatches 97 Export and Save Slices If you right click on a slice in the screen or in the project tree and choose Export you can save the slice as SLI CLI SLC SSL ABF SLM CLS USF CLF PNG BMP SVG DXF or PS file It is the last step before manufacturing the part The saved files can be read by 3D printers and are built directly If more than one slice is selected all selected slices are exported as one file You can choose a file type in the submenu of the Export option in the context menu After you click on a file type a dialog box 1s opened where you can edit all export parameters figure 9 27 You can also change the file type again in that box At the top of the window you can set the start height end height and layersize The layercount resulting from these settings is also specified The start height and end height determine the exported section of the slice So you do not have to export the whole slice as you can leave out defined top and bottom sections If you choose a start height in the middle of the part for example only the upper half will be exported The needed layer size usually depends on the machine you use for producing the part When you start the export dialog the layer size of the file is automatically that of your slice If you know the necessary layer size when slicing the part you should use that size at this stage already If you insert a layer size differen
28. SELECTION 111 ADORA vs y DDD KYODO GA INIA DS TOIS NOR DK Ss A Figure 7 8 Surface selection limited by the visualization of edges left and the selection tolerance right The Shell List If you click on the Shells register in the tabsheet you can obtain a list of all shells of the part The following attributes of the shell are listed Number of Triangles overall area of all triangles outbox volume a cuboid frame enclosing the shell shell volume watertightness orientability and outbox dimensions The volume of the shell can only be given if the shell is watertight figure 7 9 With the horizontal scroll bar below you can scroll to the right to see all attributes Optionally you can enlarge the whole context area by drag amp drop on the edge of the context area to give the shell list more room Triangles Area Outbox Vol Volume 465494 1 7781 cn 15 349 cnr 419416 98 1289 cm 180 105 cm 50 4139 cor 144096 143 6847 cr 232 292 cm 90 0703 cm 20086 1 7175 cm 0 384 cm 20085 1 7175 cor 0 384 cor 20086 1 7175 cm 0 384 cor 20086 1 7175 cor 0 384 cm 17994 153 6934 cr 72 165 cof 25 2650 cnr 17768 660 6124 corr 2734 743 cm 894 6909 cr 17768 165 1531 cm 341 343 cm 111 8359 cm 17270 23 1393 cm 10 515 cnr 4 5980 cm 16408 1 4855 cm 0 327 cm 16408 1 4855 cm 0 327 em la p Alu m y j Figure 7 9 The Shells register in the t
29. The buttons between the axis letter and the regulation bar show you which compo nents of the cut can be seen in the viewing screen By clicking on that buttons you can hide these components and show them again The orange boxes to the left and right represent the display of sections of parts with lower and higher coordinates than SIMPLE CUTTING 86 Execute cut Figure 6 20 Left Right click on the orange box to set a cut with the mouse Right If you hold the left mouse button a transparent cutting plane is displayed as preview to the cut The plane moves across the part if you move the mouse Figure 6 21 Visualized points on a cut the cut Hiding these sections helps you to get an unobstructed view on the resulting split parts The yellow line in the middle controls the display of the cutting line If you click on it it is hidden and shown again A hidden cutting line is deactivated and cannot be transferred to the Free Cut module It is shown and activated again automatically if you change the coordinates for the axis These viewing functions can be combined freely and make the cutting function a powerful viewing tool as you can see cross sections and the interior of parts For example you can scroll from top to bottom with the scroll bar of the Z axis and hide the top section to see the horizontal cross sections of the part figure 6 22 Reset sets back all cutting coordinates to zero and hides potential cutting line
30. This opens a new screen and options for Boolean operations in the tabsheet The screen includes only the selected parts In the tabsheet figure 6 37 the parts are listed in two fields Parts which shall remain after the Boolean operation are marked green in the screen and are listed in the left field Parts that shall be subtracted from the resulting part of the Boolean operation are marked red and listed in the right field This basic setting for a part is changed either by clicking on the part in the screen or by selecting the part in the tabsheet and clicking on the arrow below the field The color of the part will be changed and it will be moved into the other parts field in the tabsheet The Log field in the tabsheet shows the result of a test if the parts prepared for Boolean operations are closed and oriented The test is conducted every time you start the Boolean Operations module If one of the selected parts fails this test no Boolean operations can be conducted Depending of how you have assigned your parts three major Boolean operations BOOLEAN OPERATIONS 99 P Sphere Sphere_c1 gt Parts gt Log Sphere ok Check successful Settings Remove original parts V Remove degenerate faces Tolerance 0 0010 mm Fitter noise shells Tolerance 0 0001 cm tine Figure 6 37 The tabsheet for conducting Boolean operations can be conducted based on position and volume of the different parts
31. all contours are interpreted as open contours and no filling is inserted during the print figure 9 34 Specific Export Settings Export format Stratasys Layer File SSL File name Version SSL VO Force open contours Figure 9 34 The specific settings for exporting SSL files If you export ABF Arcam Build Files files you have the options to calculate the slices in memory and to use compression to create smaller files figure 9 35 Cal culating slices in memory needs very much main memory and is not recommended with very large files EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 179 Specific Export Settings Export format Arcam Build File ABF ka File name ai 4 Calculate slices in memory faster W Use compression Figure 9 35 The specific settings for exporting ABF files For CLS Concept Laser Slice Files CLF Common Layer File and USF Uni versal Slice Files you can only change the file name and ltarget directory and you cannot edit any other specific settings The SLM format Selective Laser Melting requires specifications for the buildstyle laser focus laser power and laser speed To change those open the SLM Export Set tings with a double click on any value in the table Additionally you can determine the point dinstance and point exposure time The output will be one slm file Convert to model When exporting into a model the slice data are converted back into a triangle mesh
32. and slices are listed in the project tree The project tree can be used to get an overview over the project organize files and to perform certain functions Most of the netfabb window however is occupied by the viewing screen which visualizes the project and includes viewing options positioning functions and a few basic handling options For the control of the program functions can be found in context menus tabsheets 13 the toolbar and the menu bar Many of those functions can also be performed with shortkeys on your keyboard In the bottom left corner there is either a green or a red dot When netfabb is con nected to the internet it is green otherwise it is red An internet connection is nec essary for automatic updates and update notifications Lagat thi 241 75 mm Vier ean 200 mm Area Hegi 157 00 mm Trengs 1 013 parts amp selected Figure 2 1 An overview of the netfabb interface Menu bar Tool bar Viewing screen Project tree Context area Coordinate system 00000 Platform Tabsheet CJ Current mode THE PROJECT TREE 14 2 1 The Project Tree The project tree lists all parts and slices of a project in a way similar to a direc tory tree There are several sections such as Parts and Slices The elements in the project tree can be sorted into groups and they can have subordinate elements such as a part repair or the measuring of a part These are often connected to o
33. are hexagon socket hexagon head and slotted length in z axis until one rotation of helix is finished measure of part in x axis resolution of part in Bitmaps and Hightmaps determines how many colors are detected in Bitmaps and heightmaps up to 250 are possi ble Diameter of the screw s thread uses standard ized parameters This name will appear in the project tree Diameter of the screw s thread uses standard ized parameters number of rotations in Helix number of teeht in gear wheel determines the angle of a lead in the helix defines how the surface is aligned Changes the radius size of parts angle of bending in Rotation Hyperbolid edges of model will be less sharp type in desired size of surface other measures will be adjusted Width of each ber between two holes in cylin der with hexagon grid Length of the thread only without head A higher tolerance makes the roundness of parts less accurate and results in a lower number of triangles max length of triangles edges to be continued on next page DUPLICATE PARTS 56 Term Function Triangles number of triangles Turns determines how many turns you need in your helix Volume type in desired volume other measures will be adjusted Wall thickness distance between inner and outer shell Width measures of part in y axis Wrench size distance between two opposite edges of the outer nut contour 5 4 Duplicate Parts ae This feature can be ac
34. are marked yellow if the option Highlight Holes in the tabsheet is activated Whenever the corners of triangles are not exactly in an identical position they are moved together Thereby the shape of the part is distorted very slightly Here the tolerance setting determines the maximum distance corners are moved figure 7 19 The stitching of triangles can either be executed only with selected triangles or with all triangles If you stitch only selected triangles both triangles which are to be connected have to be selected Optionally you can ignore the orientation of triangles If you do so triangles with op posing orientation will be connected as well If you do not tick this box the software stitches only triangle edges with fitting orientation In general it is recommended NOT to ignore the orientation in order to prevent the creation of non orientable tri angle meshes SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 119 Tolerance 0 0050 Selected triangles only Ignore orientation Figure 7 19 Open triangle edges can be repaired with the Stitch Triangles function 7 5 4 Fix Flipped Triangles Inverted Triangles are turned around This is indispensable for repairing parts with an invalid orientation In the Status tabsheet you can see if you have triangles with invalid orientation The orientation of triangles can be seen easily as the outside is blue and the inside is red with default settings figure 7 20 In the Status tabsheet
35. border color background color and level of transparency figure 8 5 If you show the hidden arrow the yellow measuring line will also have the color of the remaining arrows By deselecting Show Value the result of the measurement is hidden If you remove the measure point the whole measurement 1s removed including its anchors and all other measurements using these anchors Edit measure point Remove measure point Figure 8 4 Context menu of a measuring point THE MEASURING TOOL 142 p E verdeckter Pfeil sichtbar Mab anzeigen Figure 8 5 Edit Appearance dialog box 8 1 1 Cutting Lines You can also set cutting lines on your part These cutting lines can be used to set anchors to specific coordinates figure 8 6 Cutting lines can be edited with the regulation bars at the bottom of the tabsheet below the measuring options It 1s also possible to hide and show sections of the part before and after the cutting line For a description of the exact use of the cutting options see chapter 6 4 To set cuts with the mouse you can right click anywhere on the screen and choose a cut across any axis which you can then set by clicking on the part Figure 8 6 Measurement of a surface to a point on a cut THE MEASURING TOOL 143 8 1 2 Setting Anchors All measurements are defined by anchor points They can be placed simply by a mouseclick If you hold the left mouse button you can still move the m
36. bottom of the tabsheet The three options can be activated by icons in the tabsheet Create Cutting Plane Vertical to Surface If this option is chosen you can insert a cutting plane with a mouse click on a part in the project The cutting plane will go vertically through the skin of the part at the point you clicked on and will be positioned horizontally if possible figure 6 25 Create Cutting Plane Tangential to Surface With this option the cutting plane is parallel to the triangle you click on and it runs right through that triangle figure 6 26 FREE CUT 89 Figure 6 24 Here the cutting plane cuts through two parts of which one is selected The cylinder is unaffected Figure 6 25 Here the cutting plane is inserted vertically to the sphere Create Cutting Plane by Three Points If this option is chosen you can click on any three points on the part A cutting plane is inserted which is defined by those three points Here you get the preview of the plane when you hold the mouse button during the placing of the third point The last point you choose will also be the center of the plane figure 6 27 FREE CUT 90 Figure 6 26 This plane is aligned tangentially to the sphere s skin Figure 6 27 When you define a plane with three points the first two are colored blue while the third is colored black and will be the center of the plane Move and Rotate Cutting Plane With help of the
37. by defining the actual size Slices are always scaled evenly in both the X and the Y direction With the Fix scaling ratio box ticked the dimensions of all three axes are scaled by an equal factor and consequently makes the whole part bigger or smaller If it s not ticked the values of X and Z axis can be changed X and Y axis will always be kept synchronous If the box Keep window open is ticked you can apply the changes by Scale the dialog will stay open and you immediately can change the part s size again DIQ selection its position and size Then decide wether you want to mirror it along the The mirroring function can be found in the submenu Extended in the con text menu As in the handling fuctions before you can check the current X or the Y Axis Additionally it s also possible to define you own X or Y value for a specific mirroring plane The slices will be mirrored along the Y axis and placed in the same position as the original part If you want it to be mirrored along the X axis simply rotate the part by 180 around the Z axis To keep the original next to the mirrored part uncheck the respective box Remove original part If you want to make several changes after another it s recommended to Keep the window EDIT SLICES 163 open Now apply the calculations by clicking on Mirror Selected parts Current selection cylinder Current position X 0 00 Current size X 20 15 Scale center
38. can be viewed on the selected slice file It contains the name of the current slice the size of the whole part its area contour length and hatches length Min Z and Max Z give you the exact position along the axis The scroll bar on the left regulates the display of layers from top to bottom You can also scroll through slice layers with your mouse wheel 1f you hold the Alt button If a slice animation is started the Slice Commander automatically browses through the slices at a chosen speed Layers per Second The global information specifies the current layer and overall layer count of all slice files in the Slice Commander unlike the active slice file where only the specifica tions for one file is given Different files can share layers if they have common Z coordinates If the box Preview Calculations at the bottom of the tabsheet is ticked the result of SLICE SELECTION AND HANDLING 158 conducted operations with slices is shown However this can require much calcula tion time when you scroll through the slices 9 4 Slice Selection and Handling The Slice Commander contains several functions for the viewing handling and editing of slices All of these functions are applied to all layers of the slice 9 4 1 Select Slices As parts in the normal mode slices must be selected if you want to edit them A selection of slices is assembled similar to the selection of parts in the normal mode chapter 5 2 You selec
39. check which parts consist of more than one shell one look at the project tree 1s enough Parts with multiple shells have a little box on the top right of the color dot Figure 6 11 With Shells to Parts the interior shell of a hollow part becomes an own part and can be moved separately 6 2 5 Merge Parts a At least two parts have to be selected for this function Multiple selected parts E are unified to form one single part containing all shells of the original parts figure 6 12 The original parts can be either replaced by the new part or be left in the project Figure 6 12 Four parts become one part with four shells CREATE SHELL 82 6 3 Create Shell This feature is available in the Extras menu or in the Extras submenu of the context menu of a part It creates a new shell on the basis of the selected part Depending on the parameters you enter in the dialog box you can create a hollow part an inner offset or an outer offset or a hollowing shell of the original either as a three dimensional mesh or as a sliced part The shell thickness determines the distance between the outer skin of the original part and the new shell Every point of the new shell will have that distance to the original That means that for example corners and edges are rounded off when you make an outer offset figure 6 13 General Shell thickness Sono Dart Hollow part Output Inner offset Output type Create part Outer
40. complexity of slices as the point reduc tion eases lengthy calculations during export and during production often without or hardly changing the actual shape figure 9 18 9 20 Round curves however may be made less accurate so you should take care not to fill in a too high maximum deformation 9 6 Edit Filling 9 6 1 Create Filling lll There are machines on the market which can read your simply sliced files and fill the part automatically But there are also machines that need an exact toolpath for the laser and therefore you ll have to create a specific filling Choose Create Filling in the Extras submenu With some production methods you can EDIT FILLING 170 Figure 9 20 Here the curve of the body is slightly less accurate after the point reduction adapt exposure strategy during production without changing the actual shape of a part In the dialog box there are three hatch modes available With the simple hatching the slices will be filled with straight solid lines The Quad Islands mode devides each layer into squares and filles them alternately with vertical and horizontal lines The third mode the Stripe hatching adds dashed lines as filling to the part For the simple mode you can insert the Hatch distance figure 9 21 To know the correct distance it is important to know the specifications of your machine The Quad Islands mode also requires the width and height of the quads And for the stripe ha
41. directory in the project tree within which subordinate elements are available to conduct tests figure 8 18 Specifications can be entered in the tabsheet below The tool can also be accessed in the Extras menu of the Extras submenu of the context menu of the part You can test the quality of fabricated parts regarding their dimensions and other at tributes For the testing of dimensions measurements conducted with the virtual part in netfabb serve as reference value So the testing function allows you to cross check the measuring results of fabricated parts with measurements conducted in netfabb Acceptable limits of deviation can be defined for each measured value If you right click on the test 1t can be renamed or removed entirely in the context menu If you want to remove only some subordinate elements right click on that specific element and click Remove E O amp Part 100 G Measurement 1 i amp wall thickness 0 62 mm E Diameter 23 24 mm x wall thickness 1 00 mm ES E y Test 1 a x SE Definition E Measurement 1 ne wall thickness 14 0 62 mm na Diameter 21 613 24 mm yf wall thickness 3 1 00 mm SE Values Jh w El weight 4 20 00 we Hot Si Yes we Color 6 Black amp Test result 1 G 1 wall thickness 61 00 mm 2 Diameter 3 30 mm 3 wall thickness 1 00 mr 4 Weight 23 00 5 Hot Yes 6 Color Black Figure 8 18 A finished test in the project tree TEST 15
42. during the preparation of files 12 Chapter 2 Program Overview netfabb is a software tailored for additive manufacturing rapid prototyping and 3D printing It prepares three dimensional files for printing and converts them into two and a half dimensional slice files consisting of a list of two dimensional slice layers To help users prepare the print it includes the features for viewing editing repairing and analyzing three dimensional STL files or slice based files in various formats All operations are conducted within projects which can include any number of three dimensional parts or slice files The modular design of the software allows the use of different modules within a project such as the repair module or the Slice Comman der which are linked to other user interfaces Still they can be executed simultane ously as the user can switch between modules without any loss of information The user interface of the program is divided into the viewing screen the menu bar and toolbar at the top and the context area to the right figure 2 1 By clicking on the bar between the viewing screen and the context area the context area is hidden and the bar is pushed to the right edge of the screen Another click on the bar will bring the context area back By clicking on the edge of the bar and holding the mouse button you can move the edge further into the screen by drag amp drop In the top half of the context area all parts
43. errors when CAD files with different file formats are converted to STL The netfabb software is a specialized software to detect and repair these kinds of damages and create faultless meshes without holes deformations or intersections VALIDITY 7 These meshes can then be converted into slice files ready for additive manufacturing The STL format aims for a precise approximation of bodies in three dimensional space Although other CAD formats have advantages in that respect a variety of applications need a surface representation consisting of flat triangles These are Accelerated rendering in multimedia applications Solving partial differential equations Computer aided engineering Rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing However a simple collection of triangles will not always create a solid body Fora good triangle mesh that can be used for 3D printing the mesh has to be valid closed oriented and should not contain any self intersections 1 1 Validity Two edges of adjacent triangles which lie on top of each other are only regarded as one edge if they have equal end points Thus the simple mesh in figure 1 2 consists of two triangles and has exactly five edges four border edges and one interior edge Border edges belong to only one triangle while interior edges connect two triangles Figure 1 2 A simple mesh with 5 edges four border edges and one interior edge A mesh is only regarded as valid i
44. holes can be closed figure 7 15 The triangles inserted to fill the hole are automatically selected Figure 7 15 After right clicking on open edges you can close single holes in the context menu By clicking on Close trivial holes all holes are closed that require either one single triangle or for which only two border edges with the same corner point coordinates have to be connected By clicking Close all holes all holes of the part are closed automatically This is surely the simplest method to repair holes However with complicated holes regarding geometry or orientation it may lead to unsatisfactory results figure 7 16 Figure 7 16 Left For these holes only one triangle is missing They can be repaired with Close Trivial Holes Right Close All Holes automatically tries to repair all holes no matter how complex they are SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 117 7 5 2 Self Intersections Self intersections occur whenever triangles or surfaces of one part cut through each other netfabb is able to detect split off and remove those self intersections If you detect self intersections a red line will appear representing the cutting line of self intersections This line 1s also visible when the intersections are within or at the backside of the part If surfaces not only cut through each other but are on top of each other all triangles which are part of that double surfaces are marked in orange figure 7 17
45. is saved and its previously saved version is overwritten 3 If you choose Save As or if there is no existing version of the project a dialog window is opened in which target directory file name and file type can be chosen figure 3 12 3 3 2 Export Project to STL The entire project possibly consisting of many different parts 1s saved as one single STL file Target directory and file name can be chosen in a file browser SAVE AND EXPORT 34 Organize New folder J Date modified UY Favorites ME Desktop Je Downloads 7 Dropbox El Recent Places No items match your search la Libraries Es Documents al Music Pictures Fi Videos Filename pin Save as type netfabb project files Hide Folders Figure 3 12 Choose target directory and file type and insert file name in the browser dialog 3 3 3 Export Part The option Export can be found in the Part menu or in the context menu after right clicking on a part in the screen or in the tree It saves selected parts in either a 3D triangle mesh or slice file format The new files are then saved in a selected directory First select all parts you want to export When you move the mouse to Export a submenu opens where you can either choose a triangle mesh format or slice files in general If you export more than one part you will be able to change the format again in the Export dialog box For exporting a part into a three dimensional file t
46. of the respective section You can add elements to groups by drag amp drop This helps you with the organization of the project especially with enabling the simultaneous selection of several elements Groups can be created both in the Parts section and in the Slices secion of the tree 2 2 The Viewing Screen The viewing screen occupies the biggest section of the user interface It provides the three dimensional visualization of a project including parts and optionally the platform In the bottom left 1s a coordinate system indicating the current perspective from which you see the project It shows the X Y and Z axis as well as the three planes between those axes The size of the planes in the program vary depending on the current perspective with planes in the background always displayed larger than those in the foreground The size of those planes can be changed in the settings chapter 10 There are several intuitive ways to edit the view or performing simple tasks in the viewing screen The viewing perspective is changed by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse in the direction you want to turn the project visually see more in chapter 4 1 You can also shift the view without changing the perspective if you hold the central mouse button and move the mouse accordingly If you do not have a central mouse button for example on a laptop hold Shift and the right mouse button THE VIEWING SCREEN 17 To zoom i
47. offset Hollowing shell Output parameters Accuracy 0 4000 mm Smoothen result E Remove original part Figure 6 13 The dialog box for creating shells A hollow part is the original part combined with a hollowing shell inside see also Hollowing shell An inner offset of a part is a new correctly oriented part within the original Its shape is based on the original part only smaller according to the shell thickness figure 6 14 An outer offset creates a part based on the original with a specified distance of the skins only that it is exceeding the original in size seemingly enclosing that part figure 6 15 A hollowing shell is an inverted part based on the shape of the original part It is placed within the original part and has a negative volume figure 6 16 By merging the original and the new part a hollow part can be created As output type you can either create a three dimensional part or a slice file The creation of a slice requires much less calculation time CREATE SHELL 83 Figure 6 14 Inner offset right of a box Figure 6 15 Outer offset right of a box N VA Figure 6 16 Cross section of a cylinder with hollowing shell inside If you create a part you can set the accuracy of the new shell A very low value means that a finer triangle mesh may be created This results in very precise offsets but requires longer calculation time both for the creation and for further handling of
48. parts Ctrl H Y pos q So a Show selected parts a va Hide unselected parts Gwe Stereographic View Figure 4 1 The View menu PERSPECTIVES 40 Furthermore it is even possible to hide objects which makes it easier to keep a clear overview of the project To have an unhindered view on chosen parts without removing any others you can also hold the h key to highlight selected objects which will be displayed in the foreground regardless of their position Further options for viewing the screen include the level of details highlighting back faces displaying the triangle mesh of any chosen part edges on parts and the plat form 4 1 Perspectives The perspective refers to the direction from which a project is viewed In the bottom left of the viewing screen 1s a coordinate system indicating the current viewing perspective figure 4 2 Figure 4 2 Three Different Perspectives with the Coordinate System To change the perspective there are two ways First by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse in the direction you want to turn the project visually the perspective can be intuitively rotated to any position with the center of the screen as center of rotation If you right click close to the edge of the screen the perspective is only changed two dimensionally to the left right up and down If you want a certain point on a part as center of rotation right click on this point and click
49. placed on edges Click on two edges to get the angle between them The edges are extended beyond their corner points on the part If the edges do not cut through each other one edge is moved parallel so that they do cut and an angle can be calculated figure 8 13 THE MEASURING TOOL 147 Figure 8 12 Measurement of the angle between the top surface and the side edge by three points First measure distance of opposite edge of top surface and use the central anchor as first arm As apex the corner point of the side edge and the top surface and as second arm a point on the side edge is chosen This results in the angle between the center of the top surface and the edge Figure 8 13 Left Measurement of angle by two edges Right Here the edges do not cut so the edge of the top surface is moved parallel until it cuts the side edge 3 1 5 Measure Radius It is possible to measure the radius of both circles and spheres The specified value is the diameter of the circle or sphere You can place the anchors for THE MEASURING TOOL 148 the measurement freely with any of the anchor setting options Circle Arc Click on a circle on the part or on a smooth curve to get its radius It is not necessary that the curve forms a complete circle figure 8 14 Figure 8 14 Left The diameter of a half circle is measured by clicking on the circle arc Right The radii of the two circles on the top and on the bottom of
50. point fig ure 8 10 Figure 8 10 Measurement of point to line The Line is extended beyond its corners Line to Line Calculates the shortest distance between two lines For two lines cutting through each other this distance is 0 Otherwise the points on the lines which are the closest together are taken as anchor points for the measurement Again for the measurement the lines are extended beyond its end points on the part Surface to Point Calculates the distance from a surface to a point Click first anywhere on the surface then set an anchor anywhere on the part For the measurement the surface is extended beyond its edges figure 8 11 THE MEASURING TOOL 146 h Figure 8 11 Left To measure the distance between a surface and a point first click on the surface Center When you hold the left mouse button as you set the second anchor a preview of the surface is displayed The surface is extended beyond its edges Right The result of the measurement 8 1 4 Measure Angles There are two methods to measure angles after clicking on the icon for mea suring angles in general Three points With that option you can set anchors anywhere The first an chor determines the first arm the second anchor determines the apex and the third anchor determines the second arm netfabb calculates the angle between the two arms which run from their anchor through the apex figure 8 12 Two Edges Anchors will always be
51. point is then adjusted to this average value That way surfaces become smoother and corners and sharp edges of objects become rounder and are pulled inwards The surface of the triangles 1s reduced by that process as corner points are drawn more closely together In the Basic mode it is important that your triangles have a similar size That is why it is recommended to refine triangles before smoothing the triangle mesh Otherwise the result of the smoothing depends very much on the triangulation and less on the actual shape of the part In the advanced mode you can set the smoothing strength in glide ratio which means that you are able to define the level of smoothing more precisely Then there are three different options Selected Triangles only see above Prevent volume shrinking The part will be deformed but the volume won t get any smaller Triangulation EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 130 independent As it s being considered that the triangles have a different size you hardly get any deformation effect and the shapes will be retained This way you don t have to refine the triangle mesh before smoothing pg VAL Figure 7 37 Left Surface marked for smoothing edges with more than 10 visual ized Right Smoothed triangles no edges with more than 10 remain Figure 7 38 Smoothed Cube five iterations 7 7 5 Cut Surfaces With this function in the repair module it is possible to draw lines on a part and cut
52. positioned exactly as defined in the file Most three dimensional files contain positional information Move parts to origin All parts are moved to the origin The lowest outbox coordinates will be X 0 Y 0 Z 0 Arrange parts All parts are arranged nexttogether in the platform with their outbox as reference The first part is inserted at the origin If the box Stitch all is ticked the triangles of every part are stitched when you add the parts The General level of detail sets the level of detail for all parts Choose a value in the dropdown menu If you tick the box Set LOD level of detail as default your level of detail value will become standard for the Advanced File Import The option Move stitched parts into group generates a group in your project into which all added parts which have been stitched are moved Parts that are not damaged or cannot be stitched at all but are stitched nevertheless for example with the option Stitch all are not moved into this group In the bottom left there is the option Always use this dialog If you deactivate this the advanced file import will no longer appear when you add parts You can reactivate it in the settings If you increase the quantity of the single parts to more than 5 you can let the parts be organized in groups For example you open a part and want to load it 12 times change the Automatic grouping of parts to more then 10 duplicates All 12 parts will then be organize
53. standard analysis P Parts ay Sample Part 100 6 E ey Part analysis di Standard analysis a Up Domnskins a Shadow area CE Up iDownskins Pom fa Fo E a j A AA G x Figure 6 2 A group of analyses in the project tree You can remove single analyses with a double click on the red X next to the analysis in the project tree If you want to remove the whole group of analyses use the red PART ANALYSIS 75 X next to the group Part Analysis or right click on it and remove it in the context menu 6 1 1 Standard Analysis The standard analysis provides information on the position size volume and area of a selected part as well as its number of points triangles edges and shells It provides information about potential damage to the part by showing the number of holes boundary edges flipped triangles and bad edges specifies the overall length of boundary edges and checks if the part is closed and orientable Thus you can find out if a part requires repair and which kind of repair it requires Additionally the minimum maximum and average value as well as the deviation are calculated and specified for edges per point triangles per edge triangle quality and edge length figure 6 1 6 1 2 Upskin and Downskin Analysis If you choose the analysis of up downskins you can identify the top and bot tom surfaces of your part You find out precisely which surface areas of your part are below a certain a
54. they start at the coordinates X 0 and Y 0 If it 1s not ticked and the slices have negative X or Y coordinates you get a warning The SLI and CLI file formats do not support slices with negative coordinates You can solve that problem by ticking Move Parts to Origin or clicking on Fix Problem in which case Move Parts to Origin 1s ticked automatically figure 9 32 If you do not want the slice at the coordinates X 0 Y 0 you have to cancel the export dialog move the slice to positive coordinates and start the export again For SLC files you have dropdown menus to choose between the units mm or inch and to choose either Part Support or Web as SLC type figure 9 33 For SSL Stratasys Layer File files you have to choose which version of SSL files EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 178 F Move parts to origin At least one part has negative X or coordinates The SLI format does not support this You can solve this problem by moving your parts to the origin Figure 9 32 If a slice has negative X or Y coordinates you get a warning and you can move it automatically to X 0 Y 0 by clicking on Fix Problem Specific Export Settings Export format SLC File SLC bl File name Units lin SC Type Part Figure 9 33 The specific settings for exporting SLC files you want to export SSL VO or SSL V20 If you have chosen SSL V20 you can tick and untick the box Force open contours If this option is activated
55. to parts Similarly Group of cut parts refers to the group into which cut parts are moved For functions which may create several parts at once or which process several parts at once such as Duplicate Shells to Parts Cut parts and Merge parts there is the additional field XX This is only enabled if the box below is ticked If several parts are created at once the XX stands for a number which will be inserted for GENERAL SETTINGS 192 Part Renaming Repair Part Extract Triangles as Part Mirror Part Invert Part Create Hollow Part Inner Offset Outer Offset Hollowing Shell Gunlicafe Duplicate in advanced part import Shells to Parts Group of shells of one part Group of shells of multiple parts Merge Parts Cut Parts Group of cut parks Defaults part name repaired part name extracted part name mirrored part name inverted part name hollowed Inner Offset of part name Outer Offset of park name Hollowing Shell of part name Dart Name AC part name _ cae Shell 4 of part name Shells of part name Shells of 2 parts Merge of Xx parts part name Cub ws Cuts of part name lt reset netfabb default settings Figure 10 6 The list of functions for which the automatic part renaming can be altered 222 Edit Renaming Shells to Parts XX V Enabled Preview Preview Shell XX of part name part name Figure 10 7 The dialog box for changing the automa
56. you license your netfabb installation by opening the license file with net fabb and restarting the software the license file is copied automatically into the right folder Crash Logger If you run accross any errors the Crash Logger provides further information A small GENERAL SETTINGS 188 extra tool is required though please contact support netfabb com iPhone Settings Here you can set whether or not you want to listen automatically for iPhones If you choose Yes you will automatically be notified if an iPhone with a netfabb installation tries to connect with your netfabb In the field below you can enter the name which your netfabb will have in that network To connect netfabb with smartphones you need a wireless internet connection Online Update Enabled Here you can choose to enable or disable online updates This is only possible if online updates are not disabled in the admin settings You are only notified of a new update and you are only able to conduct an update if online updates are enabled If the online updates are enabled the point in the bottom left corner of the netfabb window is green if they are not enabled it is red Platform size The size of the platform is best adjusted to the size of the build platform in your machine Always use file preview If you select Yes the File Preview Browser will start every time you want to open a file Automatic check for erroneous parts If you do not
57. 1531 om 341 543 cor 111 8359 cm 3340 275 2004 cof 436904 cr 21445537 co 12 600 0000 cr 1000 000 cr 1000 0000 17766 660 6124 cor 2734 43 cof 0946909 cr _ r Tl t 4 auto select Retresh Figure 7 10 The red colored text indicates that the part has been edited and the shell list is no longer up to date Choose Refresh to update it So with the shell list you can sort your shells according to certain attributes and select them For example 1f you have a part with many tiny shells which you want to remove you can sort them according to their area and then select them by clicking on the first and then clicking on the last you want to select holding shift That way all tiny shells are selected at once and can be removed with the Delete key MANUAL REPAIR 113 Additional Selection Options ins Whenever you have selected triangles or surfaces you can expand or shrink the selection in the context menu or by pressing Plus or Minus If you expand the selection all unselected triangles adjacent to the current selection are added to the selection If you shrink the selection all selected triangles adjacent to unselected triangles are removed from the selection gt S If a part has holes all surrounding triangles can be selected by right clicking on the edge of a hole and choosing Select surrounding trian gles Alternatively if you click on Select Attached Triangle Only only the triangle to which the edge belo
58. 2 3 2 1 Create Definition To be able to get a useful test result it is important to create a precise definition of the test In the definition directory of the test in the project tree all measurings conducted with the part are listed with single measurements as subordinate elements If you click on the Definition directory or on a measuring group of measurements you can take offsets and scales into account which are expected to occur during production and you can specify general standard tolerances These are acceptable values for deviations in general measured in mm for distances for angles and for circle diameters figure 8 19 With the button Apply tolerances are calculated according to these values for all single measurements The single measuring operations measuring points are included into the test 1f the box next to their name is ticked in the project tree If you click on the measurement you can see the reference value which is based on the measured value and could be modified by the general definitions and you can insert the upper and lower acceptable value for every measurement figure 8 19 The offset which you have set in the general definition can be either added or deducted depending on the option you choose in the dropdown menu In the text field below you can add notes for the test of this measuring point Scale 100 00 To a Value gt Yes No Choice pS om a Reference value 0 00 Standard tolera
59. 2 3 To slice a part move it into the slices section with drag amp drop The blue bar indicates the place you drag an element to Further functions available are activated by double clicks on the little icons next to the name of objects To the right side of the main sections there is a little folder by which you can add files to the project With the round colored dot you can change the color of the part With the red X on the right side the object is removed from the project One click on the little eye hides or shows the object figure 2 4 With the red X on the right side the object 1s removed from the project One click on the little eye hides or shows the object When certain features are active other icons are added such as a blue plus to add elements to the project or a green tick next to the repair directory to apply the repair The numbers which are depicted on the right side of parts do not perform a function THE VIEWING SCREEN 16 but serve as auxiliary notes to keep an overview over projects containing a large number of parts P Parts aa O gear 100 7169 Hide Show asia Remove Change Color Figure 2 4 Icons in the project tree preform certain functions of the program Many more functions of the software are available in the project tree via context menus 1f you right click on objects If you select Create new group in the context menu you can create a group of elements as subdirectory
60. 6214 triangles Y 75 Volume 0 001cm 1 shell 76 483mm x 161 869mm x 223 046mm18599 triangles i 75 lt no valid volume gt 13 shells Part_1 no scaling Part_2 no scaling 103 089mm x 103 089mm x 26 000mm 29706 triangles Y 75 Volume 22 301cm 1 shell j 34 618mm x 35 223mm x 35 185mm 43258 triangles Y 75 Volume 22 598cm 45 shells Part_3 no scaling Part_4 no scaling According to file data Stitch all General level of detail 75 v Set LOD as Default Create group with stitched parts Automatic grouping of parts for more than 5 duplicates v Y 7 V Always use this dialog Figure 3 4 The dialog for the Advanced File Import Change options for single parts If you right click on a part in the table a context menu is opened with which you can edit your import settings for that particular part figure 3 5 With the quantity you can set how many copies of this part are inserted If you have more than one a number will be added as suffix to the part name for example OPEN FILES 28 23 Quantity a Rename BD level of Detail gt ta Scale ae Stitch Q Remove Figure 3 5 The context menu after a right click on a part in the import dialog Box_01 and Box_02 The quantity can also be changed after a double click on the part name With the next option you can rename your parts The level of detail changes only the display of parts and does not have any influence on th
61. 68 Remove degenerate faces 121 Remove double triangles 120 Remove groups 68 Remove measuring point 141 Remove part 49 Remove selected triangles 114 Remove self intersections 117 Remove slice 156 Rename groups 68 Rename part 67 Renumber parts 69 Repair scripts 123 Reset line Cut surfaces 131 Rotate cutting plane 90 93 94 Rotate parts 17 60 Rotate slice 162 Save 33 Save As 33 Save Screenshot 38 Scale parts 61 Scale slice 162 Screenshot to Clipboard 38 Select repair 108 Select all parts 51 Select all triangles 110 Select attached triangle only 113 Select no part 51 Select Overlapping Triangles 120 Select parts 15 49 Select shells 108 112 Select shells with negative volume 113 Select slices 158 Select surfaces 108 Select surrounding triangles 113 Select this shell 109 Select this surface 109 Select this triangle 109 Select triangles 108 Selection rectangle 110 Selection tolerance 110 Self Intersections 10 117 Self intersections in slices 165 Set cuts with mouse 85 Set default modes measuring 149 Settings 185 Shadow Area Analysis 78 Shell list 111 Shells to parts 81 Shift Extrude surfaces 136 INDEX 199 Show all parts 44 Show anchors 144 Show degenerated faces 107 Show edges 45 Show edges from 107 110 Show filling 160 Show Group 68 Show outbox 160 Show part 15 44 Show part numbers 68 Show plat
62. Analysis 73 Anchors 139 143 144 Apply calculations 164 Apply repair 106 Arrange Parts 62 Automatic Packing 63 Automatic Packing Medium and Large 66 Automatic Packing Small 64 Automatic repair 123 Boolean Operation with slices 164 Boolean operations 98 Boolean operations amp Removing self intersections with slices 164 Border Edge 7 CAD Import 32 Center of gravity 76 Center View 40 42 Change color 67 193 Change color of group 68 Clear grouping 163 164 Clear selection repair 110 Close all holes 116 Close hole 116 Close line Cut surfaces 131 Close trivial holes 116 Collision detection 69 Context menus 18 Convert contours hatches 173 Convert units 80 Create definition 152 Create filling of slice 169 Create group 67 Create group with selected parts 67 Create intersection 99 Create intersection of slices 165 Create new group 16 Create offset of hole edges 132 Create offset of slice 166 Create Primitives 53 Create shell 82 Cut parts 84 Cut surfaces 130 Cutting Line 84 142 INDEX 197 Cutting line 94 Cutting options 97 Cutting plane 84 88 92 94 142 Detect self intersections 117 Duplicate part 56 Duplicate slice 156 Edge 7 Edit file associations 195 Edit Filling 169 Edit measuring point 141 Edit Slices 163 Estimate direction Extrude surfaces 136 Expand selection 113 Export part 34 Export Project t
63. E See EE SEE ua Ii HANNA Bi i i i i p E B i Ii Define Custom Colors gt gt Add to Custom Colors 2 Figure 10 8 The dialog box for changing colors Below the spectrum in the field ColorlSolid the color you have chosen is displayed Next to that field values of the hue the saturation the lumination and the intensity of red green and blue are specified The values are adjusted automatically when you change the color but you can also change the color here by manually entering new values The change of color is confirmed when you click OK CHANGE COLORS 19 X To create user defined colors click on one of the custom colors After installation these are all black Then choose a color in the spectrum and define its brightness Finally click on Add to Custom Colors to insert the color into the custom color field you have selected In the settings you can edit the default settings for every kind of coloration by double clicking on the respective color This includes the background in the viewing screen the platform collisions cuts the planes and origin of the coordinate system the color of selected parts and of backfaces the coloration of parts during Boolean operations the default colors for added parts the preview and backface colors for the File Preview Browser and the iPhone part and backface color In the Slice Commander settings the colors fo
64. EE CUT 94 vertical direction or for moving the plane downwards For the option move parallel you can enter a distance and click on and to move the plane upwards and downwards in a right angle Below that you can set specific angles for roll pitch and yaw The angles can either be entered in the fields to the right or adjusted with the horizontal scroll bars Roll and pitch determine the rotation of the cutting plane with roll representing the rotation to the sides and pitch representing the rotation to the front and back Yaw determines the rotation of the plane around the vertical axis running through the central point Note With a yaw of 90 the side edges are rotated as well although no apparent change can be seen So Roll and Pitch are exchanged compared to when you have a yaw of 0 The size of the plane can be changed below with two values to be entered for the two axes of the plane The base point of the plane stays in the same position 6 5 2 Free Cut with a Polygon After you click on the tabsheet register Polygon cut you can draw a line on your screen which will be projected through your parts when you perform the cut fig ure 6 32 Py The first two buttons in the tabsheet determine in which mode you are In the first mode you can create and edit your polygon With left clicks on the screen you set corner points for the cutting line With default color settings the points appear as yellow squares
65. Edit or in the context menu after right clicking on empty space in the screen In a dialog window you can set the accuracy and the minimal distance between the parts figure 5 13 The accuracy determines the rastersize for the calculation as the software calculates a three dimensional raster across the platform No two parts will touch the same raster cell The distance determines the minimum distance between the outboxes off the parts The outbox is visualized with green brackets if the part is selected With the option only 2D the parts will be arranged two dimensionally on the botton plane of the platform Parts which do not fit onto the bottom plane are moved out of the platform PROFESSIONAL TOOL AUTOMATIC PACKING 63 Figure 5 12 Left A project with randomly scattered parts Right With Arrange parts the parts are sorted in the platform Place by Outbox Accuracy Minimal Part Distance ra a Figure 5 13 The dialog box for the arranging parts In the next tab you can decide wether you want to confirm or change your settings every time you recall the function with Ctrl Q or not Click on Arrange parts to Start the calculations 5 6 Professional Tool Automatic Packing The Automatic Packing tools enable you to 3D nest your parts in a build vol ume Different than the function Arrange parts this tool does not pack parts due to their outbox but due to their actual shape There are parameters for s
66. PLAYING OPTIONS 45 Figure 4 7 Low and High Level of Detail The simplified presentation is especially recommended for projects containing very much or very complex parts With a low level of detail the program will be much quicker whenever the view is changed in any way because parts are no longer dis played in every detail Despite the simplified presentation the actual attributes of the parts remain un changed Highlight Backfaces The interior side of triangles is always marked red even if the part is selected It helps you to detect inverted triangles holes and cuts in the standard module figure 4 8 You can activate and deactivate that option in the View menu Figure 4 8 Highlighted Backfaces are marked red Show Edges This option in the View menu determines if sharp edges on objects are emphasized with black lines figure 4 9 DISPLAYING OPTIONS 46 Show Platform Figure 4 9 Part without and with visualized sharp edges The platform is the printable area of the project chapter sec Platform It can be shown or hidden in the View menu If one or more parts are selected and you can hold the P key to display a virtual platform with the same origin coordinates as the selected part figure 4 10 That way you can estimate how much space your selected parts will occupy in the platform if you move them to the origin ES TX a j AE bei ON Y SN 3 w
67. Part Management 49 5 1 Add and Remove Parts 49 IN UN E Bae Se eo 49 5 2 1 Advanced Part Selection 32 Sor is dis ed te ae os es oe ae hs ap ay a eae ab E ee a E 53 5 4 Duplicate Pats omar Oe eB a ee eae Cae ES 56 39 POSING ANG SCAG nota And Hp ae AOR ee ee Se Be Se 58 29 Move Pants a ua 43 4 A KS owe BES BS A Be 59 Dav Rote ANUS ges rd ae ds Ge Se Bs Bs Gd SR Ge 2 60 Dey AMOR RAS 2 dada a Al aS ee Se a 61 Mi Weal Alls a aa a aaa dt 61 o A ee a ee ee ee a 62 5 6 Professional Tool Automatic Packing 63 ESO gk GIVE cies stacey ahh A oh 2s Ghee Seo Ss he sh ee Se Dh 64 5 6 2 Medium and Large 2 00040 66 SFL A O O A 67 5 8 PlattoritrOVELVIEW e ie amp e a E A A AA eo 69 29 Collision Detection s i aie ea a e deh be bo aw a 69 5 9 1 Live Collision Detection 71 6 Part Edit 73 OE Pat Andlysi S as PA AAA A AA AA AA 73 6 1 1 Standard Analysis 2 2 0004 13 6 1 2 Upskin and Downskin Analysis 75 6 1 3 Center Of gravity sat ra 2 ee ee 76 OLA Wall thtCKMESS up 6 44 bo DAE SS BGS bE eS EO T1 6 1 5 Shadow Area Analysis oaoa 78 6 2 Simple Part Editino e sicario 79 O20 IWPR e pa oo aa At ae ke eR Ok Hh Ra RE 79 CONTENTS 3 O22 Mo eene Bae Oe BEADS oS ee Sa Se Ss 80 62 0 Convert Wiis ens 10 ona td heh de hh a ee A 80 O24 E AI 381 O25 Meroe Pants sr ri tela
68. The Zoom Options in the toolbar Zoom to Parts gt The parts of the project will fit exactly into the screen CENTERING AND ZOOMING 43 Zoom to Selected Parts D The screen will include all selected parts Zoom to Platform O netfabb calculates a frame for the viewing screen which contains the platform Zoom to All fA The View will include all parts and the whole platform Zoom to Selected Area O This activates a different mode and is also available by pressing F2 It enables you to choose a selection by holding the left mouse button and dragging a selection rectangle netfabb then zooms in to that selection figure 4 5 In turn you do not select parts by clicking on them and cannot move or rotate parts by drag drop You get back to the normal mode by pressing F3 or clicking on the respective icon in the toolbar with the mouse cursor depicted on it Figure 4 5 Left A selection rectangle is dragged Right netfabb zooms in to that ared DISPLAYING OPTIONS 44 4 3 Displaying Options Hide and Show Parts Selected objects can be hidden or shown by choosing the respective option in i the context menu or by clicking on the orange eye next to the objects name in the project tree figure 4 6 When an object is hidden this orange eye turns grey Hiding objects that do not need attention for the moment can be helpful to keep a clear overview on the project In the tabsheet there is a small info bo
69. XX XRX X y E x es Figure 4 10 If you hold P a second platform is displayed with the origin coordi nates of the selected part MESH VIEWER 47 Show Triangle Mesh This option activates or deactivates the visualization of the triangle mesh of a part figure 4 11 It can be found in the context menu after right clicking on the respec tive part in the main screen or in the project tree Figure 4 11 Hide or show the triangle mesh 4 4 Mesh viewer If a part in x3d 3ds zpr and ply formats has saved textures or color in formation they can be made visible in the Mesh viewer figure 4 12 This module is available in the View menu in the toolbar In the Display box you can show the triangle mesh or make the whole part transparent With clicks on Texture or Color both will be made visible if available MESH VIEWER 48 met ntesa soset ebe Project Edit Part Extras View Settings Help eA MOCOS QQ tQ 2vs Ve 3 earth 100 e Meshviewer Slices lt P Structure library Bale payo Display E Show triangles E Transparency Textures and colors 4 Texture Y Color Figure 4 12 In the Mesh Viewer textures and colores are displayed SELECT PARTS 49 Chapter 5 Part Management The part management for netfabb includes the creation of primitive parts the duplication of parts part
70. absheet lists all shells of a part If you click on one of these attributes the shells are sorted according to that value first from the highest to the lowest value and with another click from the lowest to SELECTION 112 the highest This gives you a well arranged overview over your shells If the box auto select is ticked and you click on one of the shells it is selected It is marked blue in the list and just as normal selections green in the screen figure 7 10 If you hold Ctrl shells can be added to or removed from the selection although selections conducted in the screen will always be cleared If you hold Shift all shells are selected which are listed between the last shell you clicked on before holding shift and the shell you select now If you perform any editing or repairing function naturally the attributes of your shell change and the information given in the shell list may be invalid In that case the shells in the list are colored red To update the list click on the Refresh button below figure 7 10 Triangles Area Dutbox Wol Volume a 465494 15 7761 cof 15 349 cor 17270 24 1393 cm 10 515 cor 45960 cor 147 26 4033 cm 12 424 cor 250 305415 cof 4 837 cor 3 5448 cor 2442 70 6516 cof 63 270 cor 34 1173 cor 419416 95 1269 co 150 105 com 50 4139 cor 144096 1436547 cr 232 292 com 90 0705 cor 3116 143 18523 cme 164 320 cm 90 6211 co 17994 153 6934 cof 72 165 cor 25 265 cme 17768 165
71. aces are moved inwards the volume is reduced If you hold Shift the distance by which the triangles are moved is locked and only the direction changes If you hold Ctrl the direction is locked and only the distance changes figure 7 45 If you double click on an existing surface of the part the direction of the extrusion is adjusted along the orientation of the triangle you clicked on in a right angle to its face figure 7 45 7 47 With every further double click the direction is changed by 180 The triangle you click on does not have to be part of the surface which is extruded Figure 7 45 Extrusion of a Box First select surface Second pull the surface out in any direction by drag amp drop Third align the extrusion by double clicking on the original surface Fourth by applying the extrusion the box is expanded Similarly by double clicking on a triangle edge the extrusion is aligned along the edge switching the direction with every double click figure 7 47 EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 135 With the button Apply in the tabsheet the extrusion is performed The chosen trian gles are moved according to your settings and new triangles are inserted to connect the original part with the new triangles If the option Move Points is activated the module does not add new triangles to expand the part but simply moves the points of the selected triangles That way all neighbouring triangles are repositioned to connect the
72. ack to the one you had when you started setting cutting points To change the shape of the cutting line you can move the points by drag drop The points are always moved sideways and never up and down as the cutting line 1s projected through the whole area where 1t meets parts anyway So when you have changed the perspective the shift can be a bit different to what you would expect FREE CUT 96 intuitively Rotate the perspective with the right mouse button to understand how the cutting line has been changed After right clicking on a corner point of the polygon you can remove that point in the context menu When you click on Cut the cutting line is projected through your parts Everything within that projection is then cut out of your parts The direction of the projection corresponds to the perspective from which you were looking at the project when you started drawing the line figure 6 33 6 34 You automatically leave the Free Cut module In the tabsheet there is an information box which specifies the number of points of your polygon and the volume of the whole cutting section which is about to be cut out of your parts Figure 6 34 Left Here the cutting line divides parts into three sections Center The cutting line projects through several parts Right The option only selected parts is activated All other parts are not affected Figure 6 35 The same cutting section as in figure 6 34 with medium transpa
73. across more than one axis you have to choose in a dialog which plane you want to insert The split parts resulting from the cut are treated as own separate parts figure 6 23 The value of the axis across which a cut shall be performed can be set by a regulator or by manual insertion of a value Additionally you can set cutting planes with the mouse SIMPLE CUTTING 85 Cuts Ea E t 0 00 mm Ee E t 0 00 mm z 1 j 51 6 mm Figure 6 18 Cutting options in the tabsheet as lt gt 9 Figure 6 19 Cut across X axis To set a cutting plane with the mouse right click on the orange box between the axis letter and the regulation bar and choose Set cut in the context menu After you click on it you can click on the part to set a cutting plane across the chosen axis which runs through the point you clicked on If you hold the left mouse button a transparent plane 1s displayed as a preview You can move it across the part by drag drop The plane is not inserted until you release the left mouse button figure 6 20 To illustrate and preview the result of a cut without actually performing it all active cutting lines are shown With default settings the cutting line across the X axis 1s red the cutting line across the Y axis is green and the cutting line across the Z axis is blue After a right click on the field between the axis letter and the regulation bar you can choose to show the corner points on the cutting line
74. always check for parts with errors there will not be any warning signs if you have damaged or faulty parts in your project Resolve Windows Link File Names This setting determines the naming of parts which are opened with a Ink link file that links to a 3D file If it 1s inactive the part in the project will be named as the Ink file if it 1s active it will be named as the 3D file Ask for saving while deleting part If you remove a part netfabb will ask if you re sure about this Restore LOD after Project Loading Whenever working with a lower Level of Detail in order to speed up processing it s possible to save it and continue working with this LOD next time Confirm after project saving If this option is activated and you save a project you ll get a confirmation when the process has been finished GENERAL SETTINGS 189 Use Advanced file import If this is activated a dialog box appears where you can change the settings for the import and stitch scale and duplicate parts see chapter 3 2 2 Default Folders By double clicking on one of the folders default use last path you can change the folder which netfabb automatically opens when you start looking for files you want to add to your project figure 10 3 In a windows installation the Setting Use last path is restored when you select My Computer B Default Folders lt Change Folders by double click Parts folder lt use last path gt Structure
75. an choose from four registers Status Actions Repair scripts and Shells In the menu bar the menus Repair and Mesh Edit are added In the project tree the repair is integrated as subordinate element of the part THE REPAIR MODULE 106 After conducting other operations you can return to the repair any time by selecting the repair in the project tree You can also add other parts to the repair module by drag amp drop in the project tree That way you can repair several parts at once With the repair module you can repair your files automatically semi automatically or manually by flipping inverted triangles closing holes calculating and removing self intersections stitching triangles and removing double faces and degenerated tri angles netfabb Professional also offers features to edit the triangle mesh You can cut surfaces extrude surfaces or edges reduce the number of triangles and refine and smooth your mesh In the Status register of the tabsheet statistics are provided concerning the state of and the damage to the part It includes the number of edges border edges overall triangles triangles with invalid orientation shells and holes After performing a working step on the part the statistics can be updated by a button By selecting auto update the statistics are constantly monitored and updated figure 7 2 Statistics Edges fa Border edges 3 Triangles 4T invalid orientation O Shells 0 Holes 0
76. and the cutting line is blue When you set the third corner point the first and the last point are connected so that the cutting line becomes a triangle Further corner points make it a polygon The corner points you add are always connected to the two corner points attached to the closest line For a clear preview on the cut the section which will be cut out is colored grey With the scroll bar in the tabsheet box View you can edit the Transparency of that preview If you move the slider to the right the preview gets more and more transparent and at the end vanishes figure 6 33 6 34 6 35 If you change the perspective after setting the first corner points you can look at the cutting section from different angles The cutting line is not rotated with the perspective With the button Reset perspective to cutting direction you can set FREE CUT 95 Pohrgon cut ana Information Number of points o Volume of cutting section 0 000 cr View Transparency 4 m Cutting options E Only selected parts E Remove original parts Triangulate cuts Stitch parts Create group Figure 6 32 The tabsheet options for the Free Cut with a polygon gt UN Q a gi N Ma y Figure 6 33 Left Set corner points for a polygon with simple mouse clicks Center After changing the perspective you get a good preview of the cut Right The two parts after performing the cut Triangulate Cut is activated the perspective b
77. and the filling degree of the platform are displayed figure 5 20 If the box Selected Parts Only at the bottom of the dialog is ticked unselected parts are not listed This data can be exported and saved as a CSV file In the bottom left of the dialog you tick a box to export only a list of the file names without any additional informa tion Target directory and file name can be chosen in a browser window 5 9 Collision Detection A _ The Collision Detection checks if any two or more parts in the project touch each other If a collision is detected the colliding sections of the parts are marked yellow The function can be accessed in the toolbar in the Edit menu or by pressing Ctrl K Users can choose a tolerance of 1mm or 2 5mm defining the raster size figure 5 21 netfabb divides the whole three dimensional space in raster COLLISION DETECTION 70 Status Length i Height Volume Area Edges earth_c1 valid mesh 100 00 mm 100 01 mm 523 33 cm 314 14 cm 14700 Sphere valid mesh 50 00 mm 111 04 mm 79 42 cm 112 48 cm 7140 Golf Ball valid mesh 1 22 mm 1 22 mm 0 00 cm 0 05 cm 69321 Beethoven incorrect mesh 7 55 mm 5 41 mm 3 20 cm 54971 Minimum Maximum ize Volume E 3 77 mm 210 57 mm Area 429 87 cm 4 90 mm 113 46 mm Filling Degree 9 78 Z 2 70 mm 240 20 mm only selected parts Export data Move table to A1 X 7 Export file names only Figure 5 20 Information about the parts
78. andard perspective the first is the isometric perspective CENTERING AND ZOOMING 42 4 2 Centering and Zooming Shift View By holding the central mouse button and moving the mouse the view on a project can be shifted to the right left up or down This changes only the centre of the main screen without changing the perspective If you do not have a central mouse button hold Shift and use the right mouse button Center View ron When you right click on a part in the screen the option Center View Here is available in the context menu to shift the view The point you clicked on is then moved into the center of the viewing screen The option is also available in the View menu After selecting the option there left click on the point you want to move into the center Zoom The scroll button of the mouse can be used to zoom in and out If you roll forward you zoom in and if you roll backwards you zoom out If you do not have a scroll button hold both Ctrl and the right mouse button and move the mouse up and down With the keyboard you can zoom in with Q and zoom out with A Additionally there are several default options to center and zoom Depending on which function you choose netfabb moves certain components into the center and resets the zoom so that these components fit exactly into the screen These options are available by clicking on the respective icons in the toolbar or in the View menu DIOBA Figure 4 4
79. arts in your project can be renamed via the context menu which is opened A E l l by a right click on the respective part in the main screen or in the project tree or in the Part menu Then you can insert a new name Change Colors The color can be changed for parts and slices Right click on them and choose 2 to the part in the project tree That dot always has the current color of the part Change Color in the context menu or double click on the colored dot next Colors are always changed in a dialog box which provides both predefined colors or define your own colors see chapter 10 2 Groups ER Groups of objects can be created in the context menu after right clicking on a part in the Parts section of the project tree You can either just create a new group or create a group with selected parts figure 5 17 Parts can then be added to the group or moved out of the group by drag amp drop within the project tree figure 5 18 This allows you to organize and structure the project By clicking on a group in the tree you select all parts in the group ed Create new group a Create group with selected parts Figure 5 17 In the context menu of parts in the project tree you can create an empty group or a group containing all selected parts PART ATTRIBUTES 68 If you right click on the group in the tree a context menu appears for editing the group You can rename groups remove groups and all associated pa
80. at is a very helpful tool if you want to get rid of the interior shells figure 7 26 For example if you want to print a model of a house and AUTOMATIC REPAIR 123 don t need the walls inside you just use the Wrap and then only print the outer walls and the roof save material and make the whole job a lot less error prone Figure 7 26 Left Part with interior shells Right Part after the wrap only the outer shell remains 7 6 Automatic Repair E By clicking on the Automatic Repair button in the tabsheet or on Automatic Repair in the context menu or Repair menu one of several repair scripts can be executed Thereby predefined repair operations are executed in a predefined se quence The simple repair and the default repair are already prespecified and cannot be altered figure 7 27 The simple repair automatically fixes flipped triangles and first closes trivial holes and then all holes The default repair automatically performs most semi automatic repair functions In the Repair Scripts register of the tabsheet figure 7 28 you can define individual repair scripts as well as view edit and save existing and new automatic repairs The drop down menu at the top shows you which repair script you are currently working on New scripts can be created by clicking on the button with the blue plus icon If you want to remove existing scripts double click on the red X In between there is a button depicting a gear whe
81. attributes positioning and scaling a platform overview and collision detection For managing and editing parts they must be se lected first 5 1 Add and Remove Parts Saved parts can be added to the project either with the function Add Part chapter 3 2 2 or with the File Preview Browser chapter 3 2 3 You can also add parts by drag drop 1f you pull them from your windows folder into your netfabb window A selected part in the project can also be removed and deleted from the current project This function can be accessed via the Part menu in the context menu after right clicking on the part to be removed by double clicking on the red X icon next to the part in the project tree or by pressing the Delete key on the keyboard after selecting the part 5 2 Select Parts O For any kind of viewing handling or processing operation in netfabb it is essential to first select the part you want to edit Parts can be selected by simply clicking on them in the main screen or in the project SELECT PARTS 50 tree Selected parts are always colored green framed by green brackets and marked in the project tree In the tabsheet below the cutting functions information is given regarding the size volume area and number of triangles of the selected part Below you can see how many parts are selected and how many parts are in the project in total figure 5 1 Information Length 60 60 mm Volume 347 25 cor Width 60 32 mm
82. be assigned to the two fields Add and Subtract At the beginning all slices are in Add If you click on a slice and then click on the arrow pointing to the other field the file is moved there If you click on the X the selected file 1s removed To unify slices all slices have to be in the left field Add Execute the unification with the button Boolean figure 9 12 For an intersection of selected slices choose Create Intersection in the context menu instead of Boolean Operation The resulting slice includes only the overlap ping sections of all selected slices figure 9 12 Figure 9 12 Left Two overlapping slices Center Unify Right Intersection To subtract slices from others you have to move those files you want to subtract into the right field in the dialog box of the Boolean operations The software creates a unification of all slices in the Add field and subtracts the area of those slices in the Subtract field from that unification Overlapping areas are deleted figure 9 13 To immediately see the result of the Boolean operation tick the box Preview Calcu lations in the tabsheet default The calculations are applied automatically when you export the file or with the function Apply calculations in the context menu see above If triangles or surfaces of one part cut through each other this is called a self intersection Select the part right click and open the Extras menu With a click on Remo
83. by the mouse or by giving netfabb specific coordinates angles and scaling factors POSITION AND SCALE 59 5 5 1 Move Parts Parts in a project can easily be moved with the mouse by drag amp drop left clicking on the green square of a selected part and moving the mouse If more than one part is selected they are all moved together For finer adjustment selected parts can also be moved up down left and right with the arrow keys and backwards and forwards with the Page Up and Page Down keys Normally this movement is conducted in relation to the current perspective If you hold Shift the Left and Right keys move the part along the X axis Up and Down move it along Y axis and Page Up and Page Down move it along the Z axis Alternatively by clicking on the Move icon in the toolbar choosing Move in the Part menu or context menu or by pressing Ctrl V the user is able to set specific coordinates in a dialog window to which the selected parts are subsequently moved Translate parts Selected parts Current selection Sphere Current position Mz 160 57 mm Y 6 1 129 16 Current size KX 50 00 mm Y irm z 111 04 Parameters Translation w 160 57 mm Y 86 13 mm z 179 16 to origin relative translation 5 absolute translation Keep window open Sem ca Figure 5 7 The dialog box for moving parts At the top of the dialog the current selection the part s position and size are spec i
84. center of the plane If you roll the cutting plane on all sides you can adjust it to any position figure 6 30 Figure 6 30 With the side points the plane can be rolled As you can rotate the plane only in two directions by using drag amp drop it is often helpful to use the corner points first to rotate the plane around a vertical axis so that you can tilt it in the direction you want Change Size of Cutting Plane If you use the right mouse button instead of the left you can also change the size and proportions of the cutting plane with drag amp drop Use the side points and corner points to enlarge and shrink the cutting plane Changing the size of the cutting plane is only relevant if you cut with the option Use Plane Boundary see below Align Cutting Plane Additionally if you right click on a part a context menu is opened which gives you further options for the positioning of the plane First you can move the basepoint of the plane to the point you clicked on Thereby the whole plane is moved parallel a Second you can move the plane parallel so that 1t goes through the point you clicked on This function is similar to the first but the base point is moved only in a right angle to the plane FREE CUT 93 S Third you can align the plane parallel to the face you clicked on The plane 1s rotated into a parallel plane To move the plane tangentially to a face first align the plane and then move t
85. cessed via the Part menu or in the context menu after wis right clicking on the respective part and creates a chosen number of exact copies of the selected part In a dialog box you can set the overall number of copies So 1f you want to create one duplicate you have to set the counter to two copies Below there is a little box Arrange Parts If it is not ticked the duplicates will be placed in the same place as the original part If it 1s ticked you can place the duplicated parts at specified positions next to the original part Therefore you can change the number and the distance of duplicates in each direction figure 5 6 To define how many duplicates shall be arranged next to the original you insert the number of copies along all three axes As this includes the original the minimum value is always one even if you manually insert zero or a negative value the count will be one The number of copies along the three axes is always adjusted when you change the total count of copies If the box auto adjust total count is not ticked and you change the number of copies along one axis the count of duplicates along the other axes is adjusted automatically so that the number of total copies stays the same If the box to the left of an axis is unticked the count along this axis will not be adjusted If the box auto adjust total count is ticked and you change the number of copies along one axis the total count is automatically adjusted instea
86. ck if the part s wall reaches your and your machine s requierments First determine the minimum value of the Critial Wall thickness All results that are lower this number will be colored red and everything that s higher will be colored green figure 6 6 Then you can define what percentage of the part may be smaller than the just described number With the next two buttons you can save and load your own standard settings For example if you need all your parts to have a wall thickness of at least 0 5mm type that value in the Critial Wall thickness and 0 0 in the Critial Surface Then press Save as default and you will be able to use those settings later PART ANALYSIS 78 Wall thickness threshold 0 5000 mm surface threshold 5 0 Area below threshold A cm Number of cluster 1655 Area of largest cluster 10 7400 cm Wall thickness test passed Figure 6 6 see description 6 1 5 Shadow Area Analysis The Shadow Area analysis projects the volume of your part to the X Y plane You get a sort of shadow the part casts on the bottom plane of its outbox figure 6 7 It calculates the surface area of that shadow and specifies it in the analysis tabsheet The shadow analysis is sorted below the upskin and downskin analysis The shadow area analyis can only be started if you have a faultless triangle mesh without any holes Figure 6 7 The shadow of this part is projected to the bottom plane SIMPLE PART EDITING
87. context menu or in the Mesh edit menu Choose the translation EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 128 Figure 7 33 The number of triangles is reduced without any distortion of the part value of the part which depends on your machine figure 7 34 The bottom of the model will be clinched about this certain value figure 7 35 Parameters Translation 5 0000 Only selected triangles Figure 7 34 5 00mm defined as Z Compensation 7 7 4 Smooth Triangles This function smooths rough surfaces and rounds off sharp edges It is avail able in the Mesh Edit menu or the context menu of the screen When you start the function a dialog box appears where you can choose how often you want to repeat the smoothing process iterations and where you can tick a box to choose if you want to smooth all triangles of the part or only selected triangles figure 7 36 In the Advanced mode you can determine the smoothing settings more precisely which may result in longer calculation times With every iteration the following process takes place For each corner point of the triangle mesh the average position of the adjacent corner points is calculated The EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 129 Figure 7 35 Original Sphere on the left and a sphere with 5 00mm Z Compensation on the right y Selected triangles only Triangulation independent Prevent volume shrinking Figure 7 36 Define smoothing precisely position of the first corner
88. ction the other proxy settings are not necessary If you have a Proxy server without authentication no username and password have to be entered License Settings In the license settings as in the proxy settings you first have to choose if you want to use admin settings or not If you do so the settings can only be changed by the administrator in the admin settings at the top If not you can change the license settings here A dongle is required to validate your currently used license Without a dongle you will not be able to use any features restricted to netfabb Professional and you can work only with the functionality of netfabb Basic If you use the Dongle type Net work dongle you have to enter the Dongle address in the field below This is the address of the server where your network dongle is plugged in You have to be con nected to this server in a network Please note that only one computer in the network can access a dongle with a single license at one time If you use a local dongle this dongle must be plugged into your local computer to ensure that you have all Professional features Below you can choose the location of your license file By default this is the user directory of the administrator usually this is User AppData Netfabb License dat Alternatively you can set the application directory which is the directory where net fabb is installed or a custom directory which you can choose in the setting below Whenever
89. ctor 1 00 the dimension remains the same With a factor bigger than 1 00 the part is enlarged while with a smaller factor than 1 00 the part is shrunk If you insert a negative value the part is inverted It s also possible to scale by percentage or enter the actual desired part size Scale parts Selected parts Current selection Current position Current size Scale center Parameters Scale factor 1 0000 Scale percentage 100 00 Target size soloo mm Y Fix scaling ratio Keep window open Figure 5 10 The dialog box for scaling parts With the Fix scaling ratio box ticked the dimensions of all three axes are scaled by an equal factor and consequently makes the whole part bigger or smaller With POSITION AND SCALE 62 unequal scaling however different factors can be entered for the three axes Con sequently the scaling process changes the proportions of the part s geometry and changes the part s shape figure 5 11 Figure 5 11 The part scaled unequally only along one axis and becomes distorted in the process If the box Keep window open is ticked you can apply the changes by Scale the dialog will stay open and you immediately can scale the part again 5 5 5 Arrange Parts All parts in the project are arranged automatically in the platform avoiding any collisions The outbox is taken as reference figure 5 12 The function 1s available in the
90. d you will have reduced alialising and raster effects in you image files figure 9 39 If you tick the box Use Advanced Properties additional options become available You can change the size of the whole image either by inserting a pixel size manually or by choosing a standard size after clicking on the button This does not have any influence on how big the slice 1s depicted However if you change the size of the slice depiction above the height of the entire image 1s adjusted to the new height and the width is scaled proportionally After setting the image size you can change the position of the slice depiction on the image In the Position field the background 1s drawn blue and the slice is illustrated in orange You can simply move the slice around by drag amp drop figure 9 40 To the right you can see the distance between the slice depiction and the frame of the image The fields Left and Top specify the number of pixels from the left and EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 182 Figure 9 39 Left An exported slice as png without aliasing effects Right The equivalent image with enabled anti aliasing Advanced Properties Position Left 500 Top 50 Center Image Figure 9 40 In the colored field you can adjust the position of the slice in the image top side of the whole image to the slice depiction If you enter new values here the position of the slice is adjusted accordingly If you click on C
91. d in 1 group in the project tree 3 2 3 File Preview Browser The File Preview Browser is available in the Project menu and opens a browser window in the tabsheet where it 1s possible to search for and open files If you click on a file name a preview of the object is displayed on the viewing screen without it being added to your project You can also scroll through files with your cursor buttons The preview can be obtained for both three dimensional files and two and a half dimensional slice files with various file formats Clicking on Open or double clicking on the file name inserts the selected file into your project That way the file preview browser allows a quick browsing of databases without necessarily OPEN FILES 30 opening each part to look at it figure 3 6 3 7 Viewing options such as zooming in and changing perspectives are available as in an open project Name 3 nuts fabbproject S september_fine stl r sip_data stl voronoi object stl Figure 3 6 The File Preview Browser offers a preview of files without adding them to the project Here an STL file is viewed Name mr_dinosaur stl packing_projekt fabbproject packing_projekt_4h_job fabbproject parametric_lego_2x2 stl penguine stl penguine_support stl plate stl e reh stl secondplate stl Shell 24 of DINO stl Skelett in a box 20130613 fabbproject s star tree_topper_1 STL
92. d of the count along the other axes DUPLICATE PARTS 57 Frustum of Pyramid Cylinder Frustum of Cone Sphere Ellipsoid Torus Elliptical Torus B E e x Hexagonal Grid Cylinder with hexagon grid Rotation Hyperboloi Heightmap Convex Hull Screw gt Gear Wheel Whistle M bius Strip Klein Bottle Menger Sponge Sierpinski Pyramid Figure 5 5 Choose a primitive in the main screen POSITION AND SCALE 58 Total count Arrange parts Placement Count Gaps M 2 2 000 YY i 2 000 riz 1 2000 auto adjust total count Total expected size Size Platform x 216 052 470 000 Yo 107 525 470 000 mm Z 152 926 470 000 gt Figure 5 6 Left The dialog box for creating duplicates Right Duplicates of an ellipse torus Next you can edit the distance of arranged copies along the three axes The value you enter always refers to the outbox of the parts If you insert zero the lowest coor dinate value of the second part will the same as the highest of the original previous part If you increase the value the distance becomes bigger while with negative values the parts may overlap The standard value is 2mm The total expected size of all duplicates 1s calculated in the bottom third of the dialog If you have selected more than one part the whole arrangement of selected parts is treated as if it was one part 5 5 Position and Scale You can move rotate or scale parts easily
93. dges Setting O all edges exceeding 20 and no edges are visualized 180 off 7 2 2 Clip planes In the tab View you can now take a look inside the part This 1s very helpfull 1f you need to repair a mesh which is hidden in or behind another shell and which you can t reach from outside If your model contains texture information tick the box Show textures to make them visible The next check box turns the whole part transparent and you can see every shell the model contains The scroll bars below are the actual viewing tool move a bar until you see an outline on the model and click on one half of the little orange box on the left side of the bar figure 7 5 The model will be opened and you can now edit and repair the interior parts of the file For further explanations see chapter 6 4 A click on the box Transparent Cuts hides or shows the cut off part 73 Selection Basic Selection d amp E For the repair module there are several selection options Depend ing on the chosen selection mode either single triangles all trian gles of surfaces or all triangles of shells can be selected with a mouse click fig ure 7 6 With default settings selected triangles are colored green on the outside and darker green on the inside while unselected triangles are colored blue on the outside and red on the inside If the Ctrl key is held triangles surfaces or shells can be deselected or added to the SELECTION 109 S
94. ditional step Next you can choose to Remove the original parts and replace them by the cut parts If you do not remove them they are hidden after the cut If you triangulate the cut holes that emerge at the new cut parts are closed automat ically with a straight surface across the cut If not the parts will be open figure 6 36 With the option Create group the cut parts are moved into a new group in the project tree Finally at the bottom of the tabsheet you can either Cut to perform the cutting with the chosen plane and settings The cut parts are then inserted into a group in the project tree You can also cancel the cutting and leave the cutting tool without doing anything You can go back to the tool any time The cutting plane remains in place BOOLEAN OPERATIONS 98 Figure 6 36 Non triangulated left and triangulated right cut of a box 6 6 Boolean Operations The Boolean operations module creates either a unification or a cross section of two or more overlapping parts or subtracts one overlapping part from the other effectively cutting the cross section out of the remaining part They can only be preformed with closed and oriented volume meshes and will always result in new parts To conduct Boolean operations first move parts together so that they overlap then select all parts you want to use Start the Boolean Operations module in the toolbar in the Extras menu or in the Extras submenu of the context menu
95. e S STLs projectfiles z Search projectfiles p Organize v New folder z Gl sk SA Date modified HZ Desktop 05 10 2012 13 44 Li Downloads ip 25 07 2012 10 39 27 Dropbox 30 08 2012 08 38 Recent Places Libraries Ea Documents A Music Pictures F Videos e File name Figure 3 3 Browse for parts in the dialog box and add them to your project OPEN FILES 27 Advanced File Import The Advanced File Import can be activated in the settings see chapter 10 It enables you to create copies scale the parts stitch the parts or to change their level of detail before you add them to your netfabb project Whenever you add any parts in a file format representing parts with triangle meshes an import dialog is opened figure 3 4 In that dialog there is a table with all parts you are about to add to the project For every part you can see information on the parts and your chosen options for the import Quantity part name outbox size and part volume number of triangles and shells part quality level of detail and scaling factor You can change settings for the import either for single parts in a context menu or for all parts with the options below the table z Import parts eS Quantity File name Size Triangles Quality Level of Detail Scale factor 7 549mm x 9 399mm x 5 413 mm 36630 triangles A 15 lt no valid volume gt 19 shells Part_0 no scaling 1 221mm x1 217mm x1 217mm 4
96. e part attributes It is conforming with the function Level of detail for existing parts in the viewing options chapter 4 3 If you change the level of detail during the import already you can save computing time as complex parts do not have to be rendered in full detail from the start To set the scale of parts you can either perform the functions inches to mm or mm to inches before opening the parts see chapter 6 2 3 enter a custom scaling factor or set back the scaling to the usual part size 100 You can find these options in a submenu If you Stitch open triangle edges are stitched together immediately as with the function Stitch Triangles in the repair module chapter 7 5 3 This may or may not repair the part but will almost always improve the part quality When triangle edges are stitched you can see instant changes in the number of triangles and shells and in the part quality If parts are damaged there is a warning sign in the column for the part quality the same as for damaged parts in the project If they are good there is a green check If you click on Remove in the context menu the part will no longer appear on the list and will not be added to the project Settings for all parts Below the list of parts you can edit settings which apply for all parts For the posi tioning of the parts you can choose one of three options in a dropdown menu OPEN FILES 29 According to file data All parts are
97. ed to the viewer will be selected So 1f you have other shells in the background or if your part has a complex shape it is possible that triangles you do not see are selected as well Figure 7 7 Left Drag a rectangle with the mouse Right The resulting selection 4 4 4 Additionally there are three default selections available in the tool bar or in the part s context menu They select either all triangles toggle the selection which means that selected triangles are deselected and dese lected triangles are selected at the same time or clear the selection with all triangles becoming deselected Surface Selection Parameters The selection of surfaces is closely related with the visualization settings for edges netfabb will interpret adjacent triangles as one surface 1f the angle of the edge sepa rating them is below the specification and therefore is not visualized 1f the triangle mesh is switched off see chapter 7 2 1 Additionally by setting the selection tolerance at the bottom of the Status register you can define the maximum angle between triangles becoming part of a surface and the triangle you click on So when surfaces are selected there are two different calculations for every triangle in question First the angle of the triangle to adjacent triangles which belong to the surface Second the angle of the triangle to the triangle clicked on Both can be the limiting factor for the surface figure 7 8
98. el After clicking on that button you can load scripts save the current script duplicate your script or rename it AUTOMATIC REPAIR 124 Figure 7 27 Choose one automatic repair option in the dialog box Repair scripts E 6 Stitch triangles i Close trivial holes z 21 Remove double triangles Fix flipped triangles LY Close trivial holes m E Stitch triangles Le Fix flipped triangles i Close all holes oe ay Remove degenerated faces H i Remove tiny shells GESTS SESE KE Figure 7 28 Repair Script of Default Repair The field below shows which repair functions are performed in which sequence by the script The sequence of the repair functions can be changed by clicking on one of them and moving it by drag amp drop within the list By clicking on the green tick next to a listed function you can perform one function separately and by clicking on the button with the red X the function is deleted from the script EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 125 Some operations in the script have a little Plus on the left side If you click on it a tree 1s opened and you can view and edit the parameters of these functions for example the tolerance figure 7 29 if Stitch triangles ur 6 Tolerance 0 500 lgnore orientation No Figure 7 29 Specifications for the function Stitch Triangles can be altered within the repair script Below the field containing the chosen functions there is a drop do
99. ell 13 of Skelett 100 Y Shell 14 of Skelett 100 Y Shell 15 of Skelett 100 Y Shell 16 of Skelett 100 Y Shell 17 of Skelett 100 Baje peajuo y Figure 5 16 The skeleton placed in the build volume PROFESSIONAL TOOL AUTOMATIC PACKING 66 part If you tick the box Update drag amp drop a live update is conducted even during the positioning of the part with drag amp drop This helps you to position parts very precisely but can result in long calculation times when complex parts are handled The box Display collisions has to be ticked if you want collisions to be visualized Again you can save processing time by deselecting this box and ticking it only after certain working steps If any parts are hidden in the build volume it s recommended to also check invisible parts To the right of the red X or green check six arrow buttons are available to move selected parts by specific distances to the left right up down backwards and for wards When you use these arrows to move parts netfabb will always move the part along one of the three axes The axes are assigned to the arrow buttons depending on the current perspective With a click on the 3D Packing the starting dialogue will be opened again and you can perform another packing process Planar packing has almost the same functions as 3D Packing but only nests in 2D The Interlocking test checks if two parts that don t have d
100. enter Image the slice is moved back into the center of the image If you create an image which is smaller than the slice depiction or if you just move the slice across the edge of the image it is possible to export only a section of the slice into your image files In the export parameters figure 9 41 you can choose how your slice shall be depicted and which colors the images will have You can tick boxes whether you want to include closed contours the filling of closed contours and lines along open contours and hatches For the lines you can enter the thickness with which they are drawn in the image figure 9 42 Furthermore after clicking on the button on to the right you can edit the color of all elements of the image as well as the background color read more about changing colors in chapter 10 2 When you export SVG files the filling and the background are always white and EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 183 General Export Settings Slice file Part 1 Start height 24 8000 End height Layersize O 1000 Layercount Specific Export Settings Export format Portable Network Graphics PNG packeround colors fo Export dosed contours Width 0 5000 mm Color Fill dosed contours Color Fl Export open contours Width 0 5000 mm Color Export hatches Width 0 5000 mm Figure 9 41 The settings for the export parameters for image files cannot be changed Figure 9 42 Left A slice image with gr
101. ently looks like a one dimensional line 7 5 8 Extract Selected Triangles As Part g The current selection is inserted into the project as own part and is added to the parts section of the project tree That way for example surfaces or single shells can be added to the project for subsequent operations figure 7 24 On request you can either keep the extracted triangles in the repair or delete them This function can be used to start a second repair module for the extracted sections or shells only So you can conduct general semi automatic repair operations only for these extracted triangles If you do so delete the selection when you extracted SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 122 them from the first repair and after you have applied the second repair use drag amp drop in the project tree to move the part back into the first repair an e AS ESA ALLAN ARE SETA EPS ES iny SS LOS CPS SS 00 Figure 7 24 Make a selection and extract it as own part 7 5 9 Split Non Oriented Edges If triangles with opposing orientation are connected in a mesh they are sepa rated by this function figure 7 25 Figure 7 25 Edges with opposing orientation are split off resulting in two boundary edges 7 5 10 Wrap part surface The feature Wrap part surface is available in the Repair menu It creates one shell from the surface that is accessible from outside and deletes meshes and triangles that are inside Th
102. es create holes D Y Mannifold edges get split D eS ES Figure 3 16 Top The file quality has not yet been checked Center The exported files have degenerated faces and manifold edges Bottom After clicking on Repair the files are error free PRINTS AND SCREENSHOTS 38 3 4 Prints and Screenshots Print zx This function in the Project menu directly prints the current view of the project With Configure Printer you can edit the settings for the printer Screenshot to Clipboard This feature is available in the Edit menu and copies a screenshot of the view ing screen into the clipboard The screenshot then can be inserted into other files Save Screenshot With this function in the Edit menu a screenshot of the viewing screen is saved as PNG file in any chosen directory 39 Chapter 4 Viewing Options The view to a project in the viewing screen can be altered in many ways The per spective from which objects are seen can be set to seven different standard directions or can be intuitively rotated by use of the mouse To shift the view on the displayed project or to zoom in and out you can also use the mouse very easily or use one of several standard zoom options Settings Help Al Perspective Ay Zoom to Center wiew on point Q BD Level of Detail gt Highlight backfaces Show edges Show platform Show all parts Hide all parts Invert visible parts Hide selected
103. ets and with corners with a re flex angle for inner offsets corners projecting inside If the offset line lies on the inside of the corner of the original a new corner is created with an identical angle figure 9 15 1 000 mm Roundness 45 El Inner offset 5 Outer offset Figure 9 15 Inner and outer offset of original blue slice The roundness angle represents the maximum angle of two adjacent points of the off set with the original corner point as apex of the angle Consequently the offset curve becomes rounder and more precise if the maximum angle is reduced figure 9 16 Figure 9 16 Roundness 1 left and 90 right When you click on OK a raw offset is created This consists only of hatches EDIT SLICES 168 parallel to the original hatches netfabb also displays lines connecting the end points of the offset hatches with the corner points of the original contour figure 9 17 If there goes around the outside of corners the additional hatches connecting the open ends according to your roundness settings are also added to the offset If Preview Calculations is ticked a preview of the finished offset is displayed in stead of the raw offset This offset is finished if you apply the calculation in the context menu Calculations are applied automatically when you export the slice see above So you can wait with applying these calculations which can take some time and disrupt your workflow wit
104. ettings which regard the packing density speed and outer restrictions The Automatic pack ing is available in the Edit menu Automatic Placement or in the tabsheet in the lower right corner Here in the manual it ll frist be described what all three editions from the Small version on can do and then the additional features in the Medium and Large editions PROFESSIONAL TOOL AUTOMATIC PACKING 64 5 6 1 Small Automatic Packing Small includes a build space of 250x250x350mm First deter mine the minimum distance between the parts and then the accuracy figure 5 14 The smaller the distance and the higher the accuracy the more precise you can pack the parts Then define how many rotation steps along the z axis are possible the lower the degree value the higher the efficiency Mind that with this high efficiency the calculation time will increase Packing options Minimum distance 1 0 mm Accuracy accurate Z rotation steps e 30 12 possible c Allow part to be flipped upside down Pl Pack only selected parts Place non fitting parts outside platform E Limit platform height 470 000 Distance to platform border XY 0 000 Distance to platform ceiling 7 0 000 Pack Platform Figure 5 14 Define the parameters in the Packing dialog If you allow the part to be flipped upside down the parts can be rotated along the x y axis if itll help to pack more precise You can also choose to pack only t
105. ey background where only the closed con tour is visualized Right Here the contour is filled and a different color is assigned For DXF Drawing Interchange Format files you can only choose to export either separate files a TAR archive or a ZIP archive in the dropdown menu and select a EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 184 target folder figure 9 43 Spedfic Export Settings Export format Drawing Interchange Format DXF Ser File name Figure 9 43 The specific settings for exporting DXF files For PS Adobe Postscript files all images are saved in one file with one page per layer You can choose if the inside or the outside of the slice is black with the box Inverted and you can choose either the portrait or the landscape page format as orientation figure 9 44 Specific Export Settings Export format Adobe Postscript PS Filename C Inverted Fill contours black Orientation Portrait Landscape Figure 9 44 The specific settings for exporting PS files GENERAL SETTINGS 185 Chapter 10 Settings Settings for netfabb can be altered in the Settings menu General settings concern all kinds of aspects of the software including the coloration of all visualizations and can be changed in a separate window if you choose Settings If you click on Edit File Associations you can choose which file types shall be linked to netfabb Help cd Settings cm Edit file associa
106. f interior edges have the same corner points for both adjacent triangles Only then all neighboring triangles are connected by a whole ORIENTABILITY 8 interior edge figure 1 3 1 4 No neighbouring triangles are split and a smooth topology is created This validity is an essential property of most calculations If two edges have only one common corner point they will be defined as two border edges even if they are a gt lt gt Figure 1 3 An invalid triangulation left compared to a valid triangulation right on top of each other gt S y y a Figure 1 4 Two meshes one valid and one arbitrary chaotic 1 2 Closedness Parts can only be used for 3D printing if their surface is closed This means that there are no holes and no border edges Every edge has to be attached to exactly two triangles and all neighbouring triangles have to share an interior edge figure 1 5 1 6 Closedness may separate a mesh into several components called shells figure 1 7 1 3 Orientability For the conversion of triangle meshes into slice data ready for 3D printing it 1s vital that the parts are oriented correctly The orientation defines the outside and the inside of a part The orientation of a part is determined by the orientation of all triangles The order of the points defining a triangle defines its orientation by the right hand rule fig ure 1 8 If the orientations of all neighbouring triangle
107. fied Below coordinates can be inserted either as absolute position or as relative position The absolute position is the position in relation to the coordinates X 0 Y 0 Z 0 whereas the relative position refers to the current position If a part is moved to the origin it is positioned at the coordinates X 0 Y 0 Z 0 Thus it is NOT the center of the part which is moved to the origin If the box Keep window open is ticked you can apply the changes by Translate the dialog will stay open and you immediately can move the part again figure 5 7 POSITION AND SCALE 60 5 5 2 Rotate Parts gt Similarly to moving parts they can also be rotated easily with the mouse This 1s performed by left clicking on the green brackets of selected parts holding the mouse button and moving the mouse in the direction in which you want to turn the part Thereby the axis of rotation is normally the direction from which the part 1s seen but 1f you hold Ctrl the part 1s rotated around the closest main axis figure 5 8 This function 1s available in the toolbar in the Part menu or by pressing Ctrl R Figure 5 8 Click on the green brackets and move the mouse to rotate a part Alternatively parts can be rotated by a specific angle around one of the three axes figure 5 9 In the Rotate parts dialog you see the current selection its position and size are shown as well as the rotation center Now you can either click on a standard angle 45
108. files are added to the project If you open a netfabb project file the project is loaded and the previous project is discarded In a file browser you can select the file you want to open figure 3 2 Alternatively files can simply be opened by drag amp drop if you pull files from your Explorer into the netfabb window 3 2 2 Add Part With this feature three dimensional parts saved as STL files or in other file formats can be added to the project It can be accessed in the Part menu in the context menu of any element in Parts section of the project tree or in the context menu of the viewing screen if you do not click on a part but on empty space By OPEN FILES 26 Organize New folder sk See ae Name Date modified HI Desktop z mr_dinosaur 31 07 2012 10 19 J Downloads s packing_projekt 23 04 2013 16 17 Dropbox packing_projekt 4h job 23 04 2013 16 31 GF Recent Places parametric_lego_2x2 31 07 2012 16 23 z penguine 17 10 2012 11 33 FA penguine_support 17 10 2012 11 42 En Documents plate 20 03 2013 11 33 a Music S I reh 17 10 2012 12 00 Pes secondplate 20 03 2013 11 53 EE Videos 2 2 Shell 24 of DINO 31 07 2012 10 27 File name Figure 3 2 In this file browser dialog search for the file you want open clicking on a file and clicking the Open button in the appearing dialog parts are inserted into the project figure 3 3 a Add o gt on AU L Jc LS a rues pw r
109. form 46 Show points 160 Show points on cut 85 Show selected parts 44 Show slice 160 Show triangle mesh 47 107 Shrink selection 113 Simple Cutting 84 Slice animation 157 Slice output for EOS 66 Slice selected parts 154 Smooth triangles 128 Sort type 172 Split large STL file 31 Split non oriented edges 122 Split off self intersections 117 Standard Analysis 75 Standard perspectives 41 Status repair 106 Stitch triangles 118 Subtract parts 100 Subtract slices 165 Tabsheet 20 Test 151 Text result 153 Toggle selection repair 110 Toolbar 18 Triangle Edge 7 Triangulate cut 97 Undo 25 106 Ungroup 68 Unify parts 99 Unity Slices 165 Unity slices 165 Unlock view 150 Upskin and Downskin Analysis 75 Use plane boundary 97 Wall thickness 77 Wrap part surface 122 Z Compensation 127 Zoom 17 42 Zoom on part repair 107 Zoom on selected slice files 159 Zoom on selected triangles 107 Zoom to all 43 Zoom to all slice files 159 Zoom to parts 42 Zoom to platform 43 Zoom to selected area 43 Zoom to selected area slices 159 Zoom to selected parts 43 Zoom to selection repair 107
110. g plane of the EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 133 Offset mm roe Figure 7 42 In this dialog you can set the distance of the offset neighboring triangle New corner points are placed along the cutting line of the two new triangles figure 7 43 NI 57 Close hole SS Select all surrounding triangles Sif Select attached triangle only al Create Offset of hole edges i Figure 7 43 Left The original mesh Right An offset with Imm distance is created If one or more triangles on the part are selected netfabb creates only offsets along the edges belonging to these selected triangles figure 7 44 Figure 7 44 Left Here a few triangles are selected before creating the offset Right The resulting offset EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 134 7 7 7 Extrude Surfaces A This is an advanced mesh editing function available in the toolbar in the Mesh Edit menu or the context menu if you right click on a selection It allows you to change the shape of objects First select the triangles or surfaces you want to move and activate the function Extrude Surfaces In that mode a grey surface is displayed which represents the new position of the extruded triangles At the beginning it is shifted from their old position by Imm You can now change the position of these triangles by drag amp drop in any direction and by any distance By pulling it outwards the part 1s expanded accordingly and the volume increases If surf
111. gles are in the center of the screen and these triangles fit exactly into the frame of the viewing screen Zoom to Selection This feature enables you to drag a selection rectangle when holding the left mouse button netfabb then zooms in to that selection By ticking the respective boxes in the visualization settings in the Status register you can choose whether to highlight holes with a yellow line show degenerated faces visualize the triangle mesh and highlight errors with a thicker line Errors can also be highlighted during operations by holding the H key figure 7 3 Visualization Highlight holes Triangle mesh Show edges from J off Show degenerated faces Highlight errors Figure 7 3 The visualization settings in the tabsheet If the triangle mesh is not shown there is the option to visualize triangle edges ex ceeding a certain angle which can be adjusted with a slider Here 0 stands for triangles lying in the same plane and all angled edges are shown while with 180 or off no edges are visualized figure 7 4 The setting of this regulator also has an influence on the selection of surfaces see chapter 7 3 SELECTION 108 GENIOS ZA ZB ZH HY YAMIN Lh jy JEN LL 4 BAN WAT AKAN y y y j h f f i J N Y J i l l Figure 7 4 One part with four different options for the visualization of edges First the triangle mesh is shown all edges then it is switched off and all angled e
112. gs Further settings in the tabsheet are Remove Original Parts and Remove Degener ate Faces and Filter Noise Shells If Remove Original Parts is ticked in the tabsheet and a Boolean operation is ap plied the old parts will be removed If it is not ticked you will have both the old and new parts available After the retriangulations Remove Degenerate Faces if ticked removes all trian gles without any or with hardly any surface These triangles usually are unnecessary By setting the tolerance you can set the maximum height of the triangles which shall be deleted Finally you can Filter Noise Shells These are very tiny shells which can come into being when you subtract parts or create intersections If the box is ticked you can enter a tolerance volume All shells with a volume lower than that will be deleted when the Boolean operation is applied Apply Boolean Operations After performing one of these operations you can either apply the calculation undo the calculation or thoroughly cancel Boolean Operations figure 6 41 If you want to insert the part into the project you have to click Apply If you want to perform a different Boolean Operation click Undo To leave the module without effect click Cancel ETE Figure 6 41 Apply undo or cancel Boolean operation 6 7 Triangle Reduction This feature can be found in the Extras menu or in the context menu after right clicking on the part and choosing Extras
113. gu lated accordingly Secondly the surface is split along the line creating open border edges figure 7 40 Consequently everything within the line becomes an own shell and can be selected with the Select Shell mode in the toolbar If you have chosen only two points the surface is only split along the line and no new shell is created EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 132 A ua ra Figure 7 40 Left Choose Insert to Mesh in the context menu Right New triangle edges are inserted and the surface is split 7 7 6 Offset Hole Edges This function is available in the context menu after right clicking on the border edge of a hole figure 7 41 7 Close hole gt Select all surrounding triangles Sid Select attached triangle only a al Create Offset of hole edges a Figure 7 41 When you right click on a border edge you can create an offset of the hole By creating offsets of hole edges triangles are inserted at border edges which lie in the same plane as the triangles adjacent to the hole edges That way for example holes can be made smaller without closing them completely In a dialog box you can insert the distance from the old border edges to the new ones figure 7 42 Then triangles are attached to the edges of the hole For each border edge and each corner point of the hole another edge and corner are inserted at the distance you defined in the dialog New triangles are placed enlarging the existin
114. h complicated slice data until you export Figure 9 17 Raw offsets 9 5 3 Point Reduction O This feature removes unnecessary points from a slice and thereby reduces the data volume of the file Often these are points between hatches with a flat angle which possibly result from triangle edges on flat surfaces of three dimensional files figure 9 18 At every place where a the slice layer comes across such a triangle edge a corner point is added and a new hatch is started You can see the points on your slice when you activated the function Show points chapter 9 4 2 netfabb calculates how far each point is from a potential hatch line connecting the two adjacent points If the distance is below a certain value that point is removed and the new line is inserted The maximum distance of the old point to the new line is defined by the maximum deformation you insert in the dialog box before conducting the operation figure 9 19 EDIT FILLING 169 20 Figure 9 18 Unnecessary points are removed Point reduction Please enter maximum deformation mm 0 050 Zox Figure 9 19 Edit and confirm the maximum deformation in this dialog box The result of the point reduction can only be seen with the option Preview calcula tions the point reduction is not finally implemented until you Apply calculations When you export your slice calculations are applied automatically This function has the purpose to reduce the
115. hat do not need atten tion for the moment can be helpful to keep if you have many different slices a The color can be changed with an option in the context menu It s exactly as with three dimensional parts in the standard module chapters 5 7 10 2 In the context menu after right clicking on a selected slice you find the following visualization options figure 9 7 The outbox is the border of a slice file It 1s always rectangular regardless of the shape of the slices and is adjusted to the layer with the widest expansion If Show Outbox is activated the outbox is represented by a dashed line This is especially interesting when parts are not selected Otherwise the selection box may cover the outbox With Show Points all corner points of contours and all end points of hatches are highlighted This can include points on straight lines as in the slicing process a point is inserted at every place where in the original three dimensional part a triangle edge was running over a surface Show Filling fills the contours of a slice with a very fine grid In the settings you can edit the grid size of the filling and you can choose to display only the horizontal or only the vertical lines chapter 10 With default settings the grid size 1s very small and the filling looks like one colored surface 1f you do not zoom in figure 9 8 Figure 9 7 Left Selection box outside and outbox inside of a rotated slice Cen ter
116. he same file types are available as for opening files chapter 2 5 plus the AMF and the VRML format If you export a part as slice a slice file is created without the intermediate step of viewing and checking it in the Slice Commander The options for directly exporting slice files are the same as for exporting slices SAVE AND EXPORT 50 Export Parts to triangle mesh formats After clicking on a format a dialog box opens for altering your export options fig ure 3 13 Le General Settings Parts 3 parts Format STL File STL kd Output Type All into one file File name H 5TLs 3 parts st Example H STLs 3 parts stl STL Format Binary STL Always check for existing files No problems expected The files should be error free Degenerated triangles create holes 0 Y 0 Mannifold edges get split AA A Always check file quality Figure 3 13 The dialog box for exporting parts as STL files In the field Parts the number of selected parts is given Next you can change the format of the target files in a dropdown menu You will get different export options for the different file formats figure 3 14 For the output type you can choose 1f you want to save all selected parts in one file or save all parts in different files For different files choose if you want to give them a common file name with numbers a common file name with part ID the part number in the project see chapter 5 7 save t
117. he base point or move the plane parallel Fourth if you click on an edge of the part you can align the plane vertical to this edge Again the plane is rotated cutting in a right angle through the edge you clicked on However it is not moved to the point you clicked on Therefore you would have to follow up this option with one of the first two Information and Fine Tuning Alternatively to positioning the cutting plane in the screen you can enter specific values for the plane in the tabsheet enabling you to fine tune and position the plane more precisely figure 6 31 Plane cut Polygon cut Information Base point 91 207 64 654 161 655 mm Move parallel 1 mm Roll 4 PO 159616 Pitch 4 r 5 921 Yaw 4 r 21 430 Size 244 749 X 246 2790 mm Cutting options E Only selected parts E Remove original parts V Use Plane boundary E Triangulate cuts 9 Stitch parts 9 Create group Cancel Cut Figure 6 31 The tabsheet register for the free cut with a cutting plane enables you to enter specific values edit parameters for the cut and perform the cut The base point is the central point of the cutting plane You can enter values for the X Y and Z axis The plane is then moved immediately Below you can move the cutting plane into parallel planes by entering the distance you want to move it and then clicking on for moving the plane upwards in a FR
118. he length unit for the calculation of the slice Below that the coordinates dimensions of the outbox are specified You can read EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 177 both the position and the size of the part in the X Y plane In the first field are the lowest X and Y values In the second field are the highest X and Y values The maximum outbox is the restriction by the file type It depends on the length units you have chosen The slice has to be within the boundaries specified here If the outbox of your slice is not completely within this area the resolution is too high the unit too low and the file cannot be written in the SLI or CLI format In that case you will get a warning With the button Fix Problem the unit is set to the lowest functioning standard value However it could also be enough to reposition the slice for example to move it to the origin figure 9 31 Units 0 000050 ka Outbox 0 000 0 003 x 25 000 24 977 mm Max Outbox 0 000 0 000 x 3 277 3 277 e Move parts to origin The unit you have chosen is too small for this slice Parts of this size cannot be written in the SLI format with such a high resolution You can solve this problem by increasing the units Fix Problem Figure 9 31 If the slice file is too big to be written with the current resolution you get this warning If the box Move Parts to Origin is ticked the position of the exported parts 1s automatically adjusted so that
119. he selected parts and to place non fitting parts outside the platform Limit the platform height if you want to limit the duration of the build job and determine the distance to the platform border and its ceiling Now click on Pack Platform to have you parts arranged figure 5 15 In the tabsheet you ll see a striking red cross or a green check This indicates if any parts contact each other or not In the top left there is a notice if a collision has been detected To update the collision detection click on the button in the top right This will activate a new calculation and a new highlighting of collisions in the viewing screen If you tick the box Auto update an update will be performed every time you move a PROFESSIONAL TOOL AUTOMATIC PACKING 65 Projet it Pat Extras View Stings Hep PAR MODOS SROB8alhlt 2 Z rotation steps 7 Allow part to be flipped upside down E Pack only selected parts 4 Place non fitting parts outside platform E Limit platform height Distance to platform border XY Distance to platform ceiling Z 0 items in queue 0 threads running move and rotate the selected parts by the mouse and the cursor keys Part Extras View Settings Help DdD 000905 969406 Vit 2 vi 00 A Y Shell 8 of Skelett 100 Y Shell 9 of Skelett 100 Y Shell 10 of Skelett 100 Y Shell 11 of Skelett 100 gt Y Shell 12 of Skelett 100 Y Sh
120. heet where instructions are given and all measuring results are specified in detail figure 8 1 The options for changing per spectives and zooming in the measuring screen are the same as in the main screen only with less default zoom options In the project tree the measuring is integrated as subordinate directory of the part with single measuring operations as subordinate elements to that directory After conducting other operations you can always return to the measurement by selecting it in the project tree If you right click on the measuring in the project tree you can rename it or remove it figure 8 2 The measurements are performed by the setting of anchor points It is possible to define any number of measurement operations in the same screen and measuring For a subsequent quality test it is also possible to set anchors in order to add notes When a measurement is conducted a blue line arrow appears between the an chors and the result of the measurement is shown in a small box in the middle fig ure 8 3 Also a new anchor is created in the center of the measurement either in the THE MEASURING TOOL 140 Measure sphere Please click on the 1 sphere point Cuts x EE t 0 00 mm wa 0 00 mm ZO t 0 00 mm Show points on cut Figure 8 1 The tabsheet offers various measuring options q 2 Parts E Partl 1009 amp ut 4 4 Dika Rename measurement E a O Pat2 wows rae Dis On Remove
121. hem with their original part names in the project and a loading list or create file names with a common file name and the original part name figure 3 15 With the option Original file name with SAVE AND EXPORT 36 General Settings Parts 3 parts Format SIL File STL A STL File STL A oe Additive Manufacturing File AMF ln Netfabb Compressed Mesh NCM Gnu Tesselated Surface File GTS E Example Wavefront Object File OBJ eXtensible 3D File X30 3 30 Studio File 305 Virtual Reali e Figure 3 14 The dropdown menu for the export format loading list an additional XML File is saved which contains a list of all exported files If you open that XML file with netfabb all files in the list are opened at once The common name for all other options can be entered in the next text field Click on the button to edit the target folder In the field Example you can see a preview to how your files will be named General Settings Parts Format Output Type File name Common file name with number E Common file name with part ID Original part names with loading list Common file name with original part name Figure 3 15 The dropdown menu for the output type At the bottom of the dialog there is a tabsheet with the two registers File quality and Outbox In the register File quality figure 3 16 you can use the button Check to see 1f the files you are about to create may cause error
122. hete View Fart Show Textures E Show Transparent Part Cuts x ch 4 LJ Da zq Transparent Cuts sara ao Figure 7 5 interior view EAF Cal Al AA EaP PE N N VM NN N Y A N V V Z NIN Figure 7 6 Left Selected Triangles Center A selected surface Right A selected shell selection with a mouse click If both the Ctrl key and the left mouse button are held all triangles surfaces or shells crossed by the mouse cursor are either added to or removed from the selection depending on whether you first click on a selected or on an unselected triangle Holding the Shift key instead of Ctrl works similarly but only for adding to the selection Alternatively to selecting with simple mouse clicks single triangles surfaces or shells can also be selected in the context menu without changing the selection mode If you are selecting single triangles or even using one of the manual repair modes see chapter 7 4 you can select a whole shell by right clicking on it and choosing Select this Shell in the context menu The same goes for triangles and surfaces SELECTION 110 m m u u a After activating the mode selection rectangle in the toolbar you can select all triangles within a frame by holding the left mouse button and dragging a rectangle figure 7 7 Triangles on the backside of the part are not selected How ever triangles in the background which are orient
123. in the platform are provided in a dialog box They can be exported as csv file cells of that size Each raster cell occupied by more than one part is then marked yellow figure 5 22 Thus with a tolerance of 2 5mm parts with a distance of up to 2 5mm may be marked as colliding However while a bigger raster makes the collision detection less precise it saves calculation time Y Collision detection QE Tolerance imm Wo 2 automatic placement Tolerance 2 5mm Cerl E Figure 5 21 Choose a tolerance of Imm or 2 5mm Figure 5 22 Left Collisions are marked yellow Right Zoom in to see the marked raster cells COLLISION DETECTION 71 5 9 1 Live Collision Detection AA For the Live Collision Detection you can click on a button in the tabsheet to activate it netfabb then constantly checks your parts for collisions which are marked yellow in the screen The raster size is always Imm A new tabsheet appears with all options for the tool Operations in the viewing screen such as the positioning and scaling of parts can be conducted normally As soon as two parts touch each other the collision is marked and a large red X is displayed in the tabsheet As long as there 1s no collision a green check is displayed In the tabsheet you can change all settings for the collision detection and for the positioning of parts figure 5 23 collision detected Update no collisions Auto Update update drag amp dr
124. ing all previously conducted repair operations That way you can conduct THE PROJECT TREE 15 different operations at the same time switching between them in the process Next to the part name there is a percentage value This value specifies the level of detail see chapter 4 3 with which the parts are displayed in the screen By clicking on parts or slices these are selected and can be worked with If a part is selected and you hold Shift and click on another part all parts on the list between the first selected part and the part you clicked on are selected By holding Ctrl and clicking on parts those are either added to or removed from the selection When a part is damaged inverted triangles or open triangle edges or consists of more than one shell you can see that immediately in the project tree Damaged parts have a small caution sign at the bottom right of the colored dot next to the part name Parts with more than one shell have a little box at the top right of the dot You can start certain operations in the project tree by moving elements into other directories by drag amp drop figure 2 3 For example if you move a part from the parts section into the slices section a new sliced part is created with certain param eters which you can enter in a dialog box gt Parts la E amp New Group 1 a BET amp casing 75 A 2 stick 100 6 O gear 100 6 O Shell 100 G Slices ae Figure
125. ins With filter small triangles small triangles which are within an upskin or downskin area but which are not within the specified angle are filtered and are still classified as upskins or downskins That way wrongly oriented triangles like greases or similar do not disrupt the upskins and downskins In the analyses screen the main area of the part is grey the upskins are blue and the downskins are green figure 6 4 In the tabsheet you get a field for the analysis where for both upskins and downskins the angle overall area and number of compo nents is specified and you get single fields for all upskin and downskin components in which their area is specified figure 6 1 You always get back to this particular upskin downskin analysis 1f you click on it in the tree or in the tabsheet 6 1 3 Center of gravity This analysis provides information on the position of the center of gravity It gives the exact axis values and the size of the whole model It helps you to find a good part alignment for later manufacturing and you can decide if the functionality of the part is given figure 6 5 PART ANALYSIS T1 Figure 6 4 Left The upskin of this sphere is colored green the downskin is colored red Right This part has two upskin components Center of Gravity Size Figure 6 5 The red dot symbolizes the center for gravity of the part 6 1 4 Wall thickness In the analysis of wall thickness you can che
126. ion tolerance J 90 Jl Filter noise shells Tolerance 0 0001 cm F Action RO a A XR Automatic repair Apply repair Figure 2 13 Tabsheets of standard interface repair module and Boolean Operations module 2 4 The Platform The platform is the three dimensional area in the project which depicts the actual build platform of your machine If you adjust the dimensions of the platform in the software to your machine specifications the six planes forming the platform repre sent the outer boundary of your print The size of the platform can be changed in the settings In the settings you can also choose if you want to see the platform at all If one or more parts are selected and you can also hold the p key to display a virtual platform It has the same origin coordinates as the selected part s 2 5 File Format Overview In netfabb Professional there are several file formats available for importing and exporting parts With the Professional Tool CAD Import there are even more possi bilities Different formats have different qualities in the following table you ll get a short overview FILE FORMAT OVERVIEW 22 Format netfabb intern netfabb project 3D file formats STL STL Ascii x3d x3db gts obj 3ds ncm amf Zpr ply vrml wrl iges igs step stp ifc jt Autodesk ipt iam Catia model session dlv exp catpart catproduct catshape cgr 3dxml C
127. ional Tool CAD Import you can convert native CAD data inside netfabb To import a file in a CAD format click on Import CAD file in the Project menu A new tabsheet is displayed and you can load a part by choosing Open and selecting it in the browser figure 3 11 You ll now see a preview of the CAD file and you can determine in what level of detail you want to load it A low level is comfortable when you only need to view the part and calculate a quote A high level is recommended when you need to edit and or manufacture it With a check at the auto update the changes will be performed immediately but have the longer calculation times in mind Then choose the unit your part is supposed to be The preview will tell you how many triangles your part contains you can decide if you want the mesh to be displayed Show triangles and split assemblies into parts which means that you can load and prepare shells seperately from each other SAVE AND EXPORT 33 Click on Import to actually load the file in netfabb 246 BOOCO S OaM raro ra CAD File X sz Kassette3 02 IGS Detail High detail cat ns Preview Triangle Count 570288 Part of Assembly DE 31 DE 57 DE 89 DE 121 DE 147 DE 173 Figure 3 11 The CAD Import dialog importing an IGES file 3 3 Save and Export 3 3 1 Save H If you choose Save in the Project menu the project
128. ionally as a shortkey you can press Ctrl A to select all part in the project tree If two or more parts are selected the information in the tabsheet is then based on all selected parts Many though not all handling operations are conducted with all Select all parts Select no part Invert selection Advanced part selection Show all parts Hide all parts Invert visible parts Hide unselected parts Arrange parts Automatic placement Interlocking test selected parts SELECT PARTS 52 5 2 1 Advanced Part Selection Ia The Advanced part selection is a feature with which you can select parts with certain properties It is available in the Part menu or in the context menu after a right click on empty space in the viewing screen figure 5 4 In the bottom half of the dialog in the field Selection Preview there is a list of parts which would be selected with the current conditions If you tick the box Add to current selection parts which are already selected remain selected Otherwise the selection is replaced Advanced part selection By Outbox By Volume By Quality By Number of Triangles By 2 Height 99 0000 Add to current selection Figure 5 4 Select parts by their outbox dimensions volume quality number of triangles or Z Height Select parts by outbox To select parts by their outbox size enter limit values for the three axes into the text fields on the right In a dropdo
129. irect contact are entangles in a way that you can t seperate them from each other anymore Interlocked parts will be selected 5 6 2 Medium and Large n the Automatic Packing Medium you can pack an unlimited number of parts in a buildspace of 400x400x650mm In the Large version it s up to 1000x1000x1000mm For information about the basic functions of this tool please read chapter above For a direct slice output for EOS machines click on Advanced Slicing Parts and platform contraints are checked again The EOS SLI format is chosen already then enter the desired filename and the layer size Enable Slice reduction with tolerance If you have a lot of very small parts it s recommended to use model packages so they can t get lost in the build space For that select all the parts you want to join in a package and move them close together The press the button Create model package in the Part menu or in the default mode in the bottom right corner In the Large Packing version there s also a Data API to save and open packed buildspaces in a network and an integration of an ERP System Manuals and support will be given individually PART ATTRIBUTES 67 5 7 Part Attributes All parts have attributes which make them easier to organize in a netfabb project although they do not have a direct influences on their physical characteristics when produced These are the part s name color group and number Rename Part P
130. ither for measuring distances angles or radii The measurement is conducted by first choosing the measuring options and then setting the anchors It is possible to set the anchors of one measurement with different options Depending on what you want to measure you have again several options 1 3 Measure Distance With this option you can calculate the distance of either points lines or sur faces depending on which mode you choose by clicking on the icons in the tabsheet third row These modes can overrule the options for setting anchors an chors for measurements to lines for example are always placed on edges no matter which option you have chosen for the anchor Wall Thickness By clicking on a surface the distance to the next opposite surface is calculated with the measuring line running in a right angle inwards from the selected anchor figure 8 9 For hollow parts this is usually the wall THE MEASURING TOOL 145 Hee thickness for solid parts it is the diameter of the part at this point Figure 8 9 Wall Thickness Point to Point The distance of two anchors is measured which you can place freely on the part taking into account the anchor setting options above Point to Line Calculates the shortest distance from any point to a line run ning along an edge with an imagined extension beyond both of its ends on the part figure 8 10 Line to Point As Point to Line but select first the line then the
131. ize STL Splitting and Scaling Scaling 100 00 x 100 00 x 100 00 Splitting 2 2 x 1 File suffix split Create Decomposition Cancel Figure 3 8 In this example a helix is split across the Z axis into 10 sections with equal height By clicking on Create Decomposition the part 1s scaled and split according to your settings and new STL files are created consisting only of the respective sections of the original part The original part is not replaced figure 3 9 OPEN FILES 32 22 Helix _split_1_1_10 1 079KB STL File 22 Helix split 1 1 1 492 KE STL File S Helix split 1 18 1 492 KE STL File 2 2 Heli_split_1_1 7 1 492 KE STL File 22 Helix split 1 16 1 492 KBE STL File 22 Helix_split 11 5 1 492 KE STL File 22 Helix split 11 4 1 492 KE STL File 22 Helix split 1123 1 492 KE STL File 22 Helix split 1 1 2 1 492 KBE STL File 22 Helix split ii 1 1 079 KB STL File Helix 13 187 KB STL File Figure 3 9 The resulting files are listed in the File Preview Browser Finally you can open these split parts one by one without adding the whole part to the project figure 3 10 Information OS Length 100 00 mm Volume en gt Width 99 63 mm Area 120 63 cm Height 21 51 mm Triangles 358 lt a Figure 3 10 Two of the resulting split parts are added to the project with their dimensions specified in the tabsheet 3 2 5 Professional Tool CAD Import If you have acquired the Profess
132. ize to your machine specifications Start and Stop determine the sliced section of the part The values to be entered represent the coordinate value on the Z axis of the planes where the slicing begins and stops Everything between those planes is sliced At the beginning the sliced section includes all selected parts completely THE SLICES SECTION 156 Layer size 0 100 mm Start 45 000 mm Stop 55 000 mm Start Cancel Figure 9 3 Dialog box for slicing a part 9 2 The Slices Section When the part is sliced the resulting slice is inserted into the slices section of the project tree and is automatically selected Any time slices are selected the Slice Commander is activated Changing slices in the Slice Commander does not have any influence on original three dimensional parts in your project The viewing screen is replaced by a slices screen where slices are displayed layer by layer Slice viewing and handling options are available in the tabsheet in the context menu of the screen figure 9 4 and in a Slices menu which is added to the menu bar Previously saved slice files with various file formats can alternatively be opened and inserted into the project with the File Preview Browser or with the option Open Slice File in the context menu EE Just as parts in the normal mode slices can also be assigned to groups These are created in the context menu and appear as a directory in the Slices sec ti
133. kground gradient 40 vee oy Use enhanced display functions OpenGL 3 Yes io Level of Detail advanced Figure 10 2 The Settings window general administrator settings regarding Proxy Settings and License Settings see below Furthermore you can choose to disable online updates If they are disabled the green point in the bottom left corner of the netfabb window turns red You will not be notified in case a new netfabb update is available and no user will be able to conduct the update Language Current available languages are English German Russian Czech and Chinese Unit of Length In this dropdown menu you can choose between mm and inch as standard unit of length for your netfabb installation Show Icons in Menu If you deactivate this option no icons are shown in the menus and context menus of GENERAL SETTINGS 187 netfabb Shown icons are always to the left of the menu functions Proxy Settings In the proxy settings you first have to choose if you want to use admin settings or not If you do so the settings can only be changed by the administrator in the admin settings at the top If not you can change the proxy settings here You may need an internet connection for updates or accessing the netfabb online help If your internet connection is based on proxys you can change your Proxy Settings Proxy Server Proxy Username and Proxy Password in the respective fields If you have a direct internet conne
134. license file to activate the two analysis options An analysis of a selected part can be obtained by a click on the analysis icon in the toolbar in the Extras menu or in the Extras submenu of the context menu of a part You get a submenu where you can choose from the three kinds of analyses PART ANALYSIS 74 The analysis opens a window in the tabsheet providing information on the part The content depends on which analysis you have chosen Information on all of your analyses is listed together figure 6 1 In the project tree a folder Part analysis is added as subelement to the part All analyses are added to that folder figure 6 2 You can add an indefinite number of analyses Minimu Edges Point Maximum Triangles Edge S ZE Triangle Quality Edge Lenght volume 41441 4950 cm Area 1247 7048 cm Points 642 Edges Upskin angle 60 0 Triangles 1277 Shells Upskin area b 254cm Upskin component count Holes Bad edges o Boundary edges Boundary Leng 35 90 mm Flipped triangles surface ls closed Down kin angle 45 0 surface ls orientable Dowenskin area 11 21 7cm Downekin component count 1 Edge Point Trianales Edge Downekin component 1 11 21 cm dos Mi Triangle Gualiy Figure 6 1 The analysis of parts is displayed in the tabsheet Left The standard analysis Right The results of the upskin and downskin analysis and of the shadow area analysis are below the
135. licking on the test The test result 1s added to the test directory You will see which measurement of the real manufactured part is within an acceptable range and which one is not figure 8 21 In the test result all measurements and values which are activated in the definition by ticking the box are listed For every measurement and every value the measured values must be inserted If these values are within the defined tolerance the attribute is colored green in the test result If they are not it is colored red figure 8 18 Reference value 20 00 Reference value Yes Reference value Black ppe 22 00 Hot n a Lower limit 18 00 pa N A Yes No draga Measured value 19 00 Dark grey Black Figure 8 21 Left Enter the measured value Center Specify if the attribute is given Right Select the attribute which applies THE SLICING PROCESS 154 Chapter 9 The Slice Commander The slicing process dissects a three dimensional part into two and a half dimensional slices These are a collection of two dimensional layers The slice files are vital for manufacturing parts as 3D printing machines cannot read three dimensional data Furthermore slices provide you with a visualization of cross sections of your part and you get more detailed information about the object You also have the chance to edit your slices before fabricating them Many of these functions are also available in the three dimensional data management Howe
136. measurement Figure 8 2 Rename or remove a measurement through the context menu in the project tree middle of a distance or in the center of a radius or at the apex of an angle All anchors can be used again for subsequent measurements as in figure 8 12 and 8 15 The box specifying the measured value represents a measuring point and by drag amp drop can be moved sideways together with the blue line into a parallel position In that case the ends of the line are connected to the anchors by two more arrows and the measured distance is marked by a more conspicuous yellow measuring line if the option Show anchors see below is activated That way you can get a good overview of measurements and it is easier to use the central anchor figure 8 3 A measure point is selected by a left click and can then be removed by pressing the Delete key By right clicking on the box with the measured value or on the THE MEASURING TOOL 141 Figure 8 3 Left Measurement between two points on a Surface Right Measure ment of point on edge to a corner point The measuring arrow is dragged sideways providing a good view and access to the central anchor respective measurement in the project tree a little context menu appears in which the measuring point can be either edited or removed figure 8 4 Editing the measuring point you can add notes to the measurement and change its appearance regarding the arrow color font color
137. n Figure 9 9 Slice at zero coordinates SLICE SELECTION AND HANDLING 162 Y The rotation of slices can be performed by clicking on the corners of the selection box holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse If you hold Ctrl the slices are rotated in 10 steps If you hold Shift they are rotated in 45 steps With the Rotate Slices icon in the toolbar or the option Rotate in the context menu you get the dialog box just like in the three dimensional default mode You get the main information about the part again and you can specify an angle of clockwise rotation If the box Keep window open is ticked you can apply the changes by Rotate the dialog will stay open and you immediately can rotate the part again O Similarly slices can be scaled by drag amp drop or with help of the Manual Transformation dialog box Click on the center of the selection box edges and drag them outwards or inwards to enlarge or shrink the slice If you hold Ctrl the center of the slice stays in the same position If not the opposite edge of the selection box keeps its coordinates With the option Scale in the toolbar or in the context menu you can set specific scaling factors for the X and Y axes and for the Z axis First you get information about the current selection the part s position size and the scale center Then enter the scaling parameter a scaling factor e g factor 2 makes the part twice as big by a percentage or
138. n or out use the scroll button of your mouse If you do not have a scroll button hold Ctrl and the right mouse button and move the mouse up and down fig ure 2 7 see more in chapter 4 2 The moving and rotating of parts 1s also conducted by drag amp drop You can move a part by left clicking on the little green square in the middle of a selected part holding the button and moving the mouse figure 2 5 If more than one part or a group is selected all selected elements are moved Furthermore selected parts can be rotated in the viewing screen by clicking on the green brackets around the part holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse in the direction of the rotation figure 2 6 see more in chapter 5 5 apo Figure 2 5 Use drag amp drop to move parts Below the screen the current mode is specified indicating which intuitive operation can currently be conducted with the mouse default Move Rotate If you change the mode for example to Align to Bottom Plane other operations can be performed by the mouse in this case a double click on a surface of a part rotates the part to align that surface to the X Y plane Whenever operations are conducted that are performed in other modules the view ing screen switches to special interfaces for example to the repair screen the slices screen the measuring screen or the screen for Boolean Operations figure 2 8 Intu itive control elements such as zooming in and out
139. nces Upper limit 0 00 l 0 10 mm Lower limit 0 00 0 50 F Unit H 0 10 g Test note Figure 8 19 Left A general definition for all measurements Right The definition for a single measurement 9 2 2 Values If you want to test other attributes of the part click on the Add Value button after selecting the values directory double click on the blue Plus next to the directory or right click on the Values directory and choose Add Value in the context menu Then add and specify additional values You can insert the name of the TEST 153 attribute and choose one of three ways to define the criteria of the value an exact value as with measurements a Yes No distinction or a choice from several options figure 8 20 Name Weight Name Hot Name Color o Value Yes No Choice Value o Yes No Choice Value Yes No Choice Options Reference value 20 00 AAA Reference value Yes No i Upper limit 22 00 Bright grey ma Dark grey Lower limit 18 00 V Black 7 Unit Figure 8 20 Left Insert exact value and limits Center Yes or No can be defined as correct Right Choice from several options By clicking on the Plus button options are added The ticked option is defined as correct 9 2 3 Test Result When you click on the test in the project tree the button New Test Result is available The same is obtained by a double click on the blue Plus next to the Test directory or in the context menu after right c
140. nd on the chosen file type For SLI Slice Layer Interface and CLI Common Layer Interface the specific EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 176 Slice Layer Interface SLT Common Layer Interface CLI Universal Slice File USF File name SLC File SLC Units Stratasys Layer File SSL a Common Layer File CLF Arcam Build File ABF Outbox Concept Laser Slice File CLS Max Outbox 0 000 0 000 x 327 675 327 675 mm Figure 9 28 The format of the target file can be chosen in this dropdown menu settings are the same figure 9 29 Export format Slice Layer Interface SLI File name Units 0 0050 Outbox 0 000 0 000 x 200 000 197 964 Max Outbox 0 000 0 000 x 327 675 327 675 mm E Move parts to origin Figure 9 29 The specific settings for exporting a slice to an SLI file The units are length units for the calculation of slice contours proportional to mm They determine the resolution with which the slice layers are saved With a lower value the layers will be more precise but the calculation may take longer You can choose the calculation unit in a dropdown menu or enter a unit manually figure 9 30 The resolution determines the maximum size of the exported slice With a bigger unit and thereby lower resolution you can export SLI files with a bigger outbox File name Units a mm Outbox 0 0100 0 0150 0 0200 0 0500 0 1000 Max Outbox Figure 9 30 Choose t
141. ne Triangle Mesh 4 44465 444 0 454 4 444 4 4 125 T2 Red ce ITA SES ve scr dnde sh oe ds BAe a a eA A 126 Td Z COMPCNSAiON seared cd dao amp ek amp Bod amp da 127 7 1 4 Smooth Triangles ce pe oe wel we Bowles wo He ave la 128 Pao CUUSULIACES as o Bot Bes Robe A BO Ao 130 LRG Offset Hole Edges sd duc Exch Ee Eee Gee oe de 132 Pla JEXUNMGE SUTACES wer iva eh ee eh wee ae dd a a 134 FIS DD EXTUdS a scsi bbb bd he Boek Bw En we SO 136 8 Measuring and Quality Assurance 139 8 1 The Measuring Tool a oe a ks we a we ee we es we ee 139 A TINGS won eae hae eo ee ee Sea 142 Saz Seine ANCHO coca aaa ee Be Se eS 143 8 1 3 Measure Distance 2 44 44 448 44 4 Be SAAS Be 144 Se Meastre ARIES act Sm bode bh Ge Sah bo 146 0 1 Measure Radius o acae opo 4 484 284 084 4044 08 2 147 SAO Ad NOS meta A he he a 148 ul wet Detault Modes sad as 149 8 1 8 Lock and Unlock View o 150 i ESC Wer p o A oe Sans ch Go he SE Se 151 8 2 1 Create Definition 152 Oi A NA 152 S25 Test RESU ug adic Ade ade ste de eid e doe oe 153 9 The Slice Commander 154 ON The Slicing Process o ge de a e 2a wm hicks a tied A we si 154 D2 PMG SWCES SCCUOIGs aoar a He ew He Pe Oe A GG d 156 O35 AUVE SICE Files a ou pe lt a ERS eS 4S Ce AA a 157 9 4 Slice Selection and Handling 158 OL Select SNCES 454 45 6e 4824604 amp oad 4 ke eR 158 9 4
142. ner points of the extruded triangles to the old cor ner points As for the direction the shift can be positive or negative Negative values make sense for example if you have already set the direction and want to go exactly into the opposite direction Surfaces can be extruded at any length figure 7 49 Direction Direction 0 9950 0 0995 0 0000 Estimate direction Shift Shift P 1 00 mm Extrude type Type Real extrusion Move points Figure 7 48 Parameters for extruding surfaces The button Estimate Direction calculates the average orientation of all selected tri angles and aligns the extrusion in that direction figure 7 50 This is most helpful for extruding surfaces whose triangles are not parallel The average direction of the triangles is also set automatically at the start of the feature If you want to fix your parameters as standardized settings press Save settings as default If you want to get back to previous values after you ve changed them click on Restore settings 7 7 8 3D Extrude This feature works similar to extruding surfaces It does not only change the shape of the part in one direction though but in 3D This can be very helpful to determine EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 137 YS III N AAAS AI US AAA A ASAS ACAI EDS OU ONAL IIIT A SSS ney SAAN ROO SESS SUSIE ERESSE a SOA KARI aN NARA Figure 7 50 Extrusion of one half of a Sphere an offset for specific regions of a part Y
143. ngle in relation to the bottom plane of the platform X Y plane All areas below this angle are either an upskin or a downskin depending on their orientation upwards or downwards This analysis can be very important as for example some production methods have a different quality for upskins and downskins and it may make sense to rotate parts to minimize those areas In a dialog box you can enter the settings for the up downskin analysis First you can tick boxes to analyze upskins downskins or both To the right enter the threshold angles If you enter 0 only absolutely flat areas will be defined as upskins and downskins If you enter 90 everything between the flat areas and horizontal planes are defined as upskins or downskins In the parameters you can edit the minimum component size and choose to filter small triangles The minimum component size determines how big the upskin or downskin areas must be Sometimes it is possible that very small areas for example single triangles PART ANALYSIS 76 Analyze Up and Downski F anges 4 Analyse Upskins Threshold Angle 4 Analyse Downskins Threshold Angle Parameters Minimum component size O 1000 Filter small triangles Figure 6 3 The dialog box for the Upskin and Downskin Analysis are within the specified angle If the size of connected upskin or downskin areas 1s below the minimum component size the areas are not classified as upskins or downsk
144. ngs is selected That way it is much easier to select tiny trian gles along open edges which may be created while working on the triangle mesh In the Actions register the button Select Shells with Negative Volume enables the user to select all inverted shells This function is very useful to select and then invert or remove those shells However it is only reliable for closed and oriented shells 4 amp Finally you can perform an advanced triangle selection Choose the option in the context menu and use the dialog box to select or deselect triangles above or below or both a certain area volume of the shell and edge length figure 7 11 2 2 Advanced triangle selection Volume larger as A Volume smaller as Select Unselect Cancel Figure 7 11 The dialog box for the advanced triangle selection 7 4 Manual Repair With manual repair operations you can perform simple repair and mesh editing jobs The manual operations are available in the toolbar Remove selected triangles and Flip selected triangles are also available in the Repair menu and in the context menu if you right click on a selected triangle MANUAL REPAIR 114 Add triangles This mode enables you to close holes manually or to connect edges A triangle is created by first clicking on a border edge of a triangle which is then marked in a blue color Now if you move the mouse across another border edge you get a green preview of p
145. nsions as the original but the shape is turned around figure 6 10 It can either replace the old part or 1s positioned next to it Figure 6 10 Original and mirrored part By rotation it is possible to get the effect of mirroring a part across other planes too If you wish a part mirrored across the X Z plane you have to rotate the mirrored part by 180 around the X axis Accordingly 1f you want a part mirrored across the X Y plane you have to rotate the mirrored part by 180 around the Y axis 6 2 3 Convert Units This feature adapts the length values of all axes to the same values in another unit either from mm to inch or the other way round Thereby it scales the selected parts equally in all three dimensions effectively changing its size For ex ample by choosing Inches to mm an object with a length height and width of 100 00 mm will grow to 100 00 inches Choosing mm to Inches the conversion is conducted the other way round with parts with the size of 100 00 inches getting a size of 100 00 mm This feature can be necessary if files are saved without length units by other CAD programs and the part is then loaded in the wrong unit SIMPLE PART EDITING 81 6 2 4 Shells to Parts a Selected parts consisting of more than one shell are divided into several parts with each shell becoming an own part figure 6 11 The original parts can be either replaced by the new parts or left in the project To
146. nts and values that are within or without your tolerance test module the part in the EDIT FILE ASSOCIATIONS 195 screen the lines and the faces of previewed values in the screen and the text and the background of the measuring point 10 3 Edit File Associations File associations can be changed via the Settings menu Here all file types selected by ticking their box on the left are automatically linked to netfabb If you open a file with such a file type a new netfabb window opens containing the file You can also activate All or deactivate None all file types at once or you can reset your settings to the original status Settings must be saved to become active You can save them for all users or only for yourself figure 10 10 Surface Tesselation Language File stl Extensible 3D ASCII File x3d A Extensible 30 Binary File x3db 305 File 3d5 Gnu Tesselated Surface File gts Print Files zpr Stanford Polygon Format ply Additive Manufacturing File amf FIT Project E fitlist FIT List E nem netfabb Compressed Mesh ncm El For all users Figure 10 10 The file associations window INDEX 196 Index 3D Extrude 136 Active slice file 157 Add nodes 114 Add note measuring 148 Add part 25 49 Add triangles 114 Add value 152 Advanced file import 27 Advanced part selection 52 Advanced triangle selection 113 Align to bottom plane 61
147. o STL 33 Export slice as image files 179 Export slices 174 Extract selected triangles as part 121 Extrude surfaces 134 File formats 21 File Preview Browser 29 Filter noise shells 101 Fix flipped triangles 119 Flip selected triangles 114 Free cut 88 Global information 157 Groups 67 Hatch cutting 173 Hide all parts 44 Hide Group 68 Hide part 15 44 Hide selected parts 44 Hide slice 160 Hide unselected parts 44 Highlight backfaces 45 Highlight errors 107 Highlight holes 107 Highlight part 40 44 Hollow part 82 Hollowing shell 82 Inches to mm 80 Insert to mesh Cut surfaces 131 Invert part 79 Invert selection 51 Invert visible parts 44 Isometric perspective 41 Level of detail 44 Live Collision Detection 70 Lock view 150 Measure angle 146 Measure distance 144 Measure radius 147 Measuring point 140 Merge selected parts 81 Merge slices 163 Mirror 80 Mirror slice 162 mm to inches 80 Move cutting plane 90 92 93 Move parts 17 59 Move points Extrude surfaces 135 Move slice 161 INDEX 198 New 25 New measuring 139 New test 151 Offset 82 Open 25 Open slice file 156 Outer offset 82 Perspective 16 40 Platform overview 69 Point reduction 168 Polygon cut 94 Preview calculations 157 164 Print 38 Redo 25 106 Reduce triangles 126 Refine triangle mesh 125 Refresh shells 112 Remove all empty groups
148. old part and the new surfaces This can lead to a different kind of shape as the standard extrusion figure 7 46 7 47 Figure 7 46 Move points Only the corner points of triangles are drawn outwards changing the shape of all adjacent triangles Figure 7 47 Left This extrusion is aligned to the top surface not to the original surface Right Here the surface is extruded along one of its own edges Combined with Move Points it is simply pushed upwards the surface below is stretched and the angle of the top surface is adjusted The direction of the extrusion along the three axes and the distance to the original surface can also be set in the parameters box in the tabsheet to the right figure 7 48 EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 136 You have three fields for the direction representing the X Y and Z axes The proportion of the number you enter here determines the direction of the extrusion You can enter both positive and negative values If you want to extrude in the positive X direction for example set the values for Y and Z to O and the value for X to any positive number If you want the extrusion to differ from the positive X direction to the negative X direction by 30 set the value for Z to 0 set a negative value for Y and set a positive value twice as high for X If you change the position of the extrusion by drag amp drop the value are updated automatically in the tabsheet Shift is the distance of the new cor
149. on Center View Here in the context menu Your view will be shifted and the point you clicked on moved into the center subsequently becoming the center of rotation Second there are seven standard perspectives The perspecitves from the top bot tom left right front and back refer to the coordinate system whereas the front is PERSPECTIVES 41 the X Z plane The isometric view 1s a view from the front left top corner of the platform That way you gain a kind of three dimensional view on the project and on objects which are aligned along the axes figure 4 3 BL E Figure 4 3 A part viewed from all standard perspectives There are three ways to switch between those standard perspectives 1 They can be selected with one mouse click on the respective icon in the toolbar or by selecting one of the perspectives in the View menu 2 The colored planes in the coordinate system are further shortcuts to the stan dard perspectives With default color settings by clicking on the grey space in the center the perspective shifts to the isometric view Clicking on the blue space switches between the views along the Z axis top and bottom the red space switches between views along the X axis left and right and the green space switches between views along the Y axis front and back 3 You can also switch forwards between them with your Space key or switch backwards with Shift and Space If you have not yet set a st
150. on of the project tree Slices can be moved into and out of groups by drag amp drop in the same way as parts chapter 5 7 Q If you want to remove slices you can either double click on the red X to the right of the slice in the project tree choose Remove in the context menu or simply press Delete when the slice is selected If you choose Remove all all slices will be removed and the Slice Commander will be emptied For further information about the Export functions in the Slice commander take a look at chapter 9 7 Slices can be duplicated in the context menu That way an exact copy of the ele slice file is inserted to the right of the original ACTIVE SLICE FILE 157 el Remove H Export 00 Duplicate Ctrl A e Ka Rename current Slice Zylinder mit hexagonalem Gitte e Change color Information Y Show outbox Size X 20 15 mm Area 1 53 cor Show points Size Y 20 08 mm Contours 117 46 mm Show filling Size Z 49 90 mm Hatches 0 00 mm Move Min Z 0 00 mm Max Z 49 90 mm O Rotate iC Scale pe Slice animation a l Show selected slices TA Play Hide selected slices Ca Hide unselected slices global Information current layer 263 500 Extended l current z height 26 200 49 500 mm Extras Preview calculations Apply calculations lb Figure 9 4 Context menu and tabsheet of Slice Commander 9 3 Active Slice File In the tabsheet information
151. op Auto Update update drag amp drop Display collisions Check invisible Display collisions Check invisible Move by Move by 10 00 mm 10 00 mm e O og e 0p 0 items in queue 0 threads running 0 items in queue 0 threads running Figure 5 23 The tabsheet of the Live Collision Detection Left a collision has been detected Right no collision has been detected COLLISION DETECTION 72 In the top left there is a notice if a collision has been detected To update the collision detection click on the button in the top right of the tabsheet This will activate a new calculation and a new highlighting of collisions in the viewing screen If you tick the box Auto update an update will be performed every time you move of a part If you tick the box Update drag amp drop a live update is conducted even during the positioning of the part with drag amp drop This helps you to position parts very precisely but can result in long calculation times when complex parts are handled The required memory usage is specified at the bottom of the tabsheet The box Display collisions has to be ticked if you want collisions to be visualized Again you can save processing time by deselecting this box and ticking it only after certain working steps To the right of the red X or green check eight arrow buttons are available to move selected parts by specific distances to the left right up down backwards and for wards
152. otentially added triangles By clicking on another border edge triangles are inserted If the two edges you clicked on are connected by a common corner point it is one triangle If they are not connected two triangles are inserted If any border edges of the new triangles are neighboring other border edges these are connected automatically figure 7 12 Figure 7 12 Add triangles First a blue marking of the first selected edge Second a projection of the new triangles Third the resulting triangles Add nodes In effect this mode enables the user to refine the triangle mesh manually by inserting new corner points A corner point can be inserted by a mouse click on a triangle New edges are inserted connecting this point with the three corner points of the old triangle So one triangle is split into three figure 7 13 If a node is placed on an edge both adjacent triangles are split into two triangles As long as the left mouse button is held down the node is not placed and can be moved across the surface to the favored position At the same time you can see a bright blue preview of the new triangles The shape of the part does not change though the nodes can play a vital role during further repair operations 4 Remove selected triangles Selected triangles are deleted This can also be done by pressing Delete Flip selected triangles The inside and outside of selected triangles are turned around Thus the triangles are in
153. ou can find the 3D Extrude in the tab right next to the Simple Extrude Select the surface you want to edit and shift the extrusion by pulling the grey surface that is displayed You can also enter exact value in the Shift field on the right or with the slider figure 7 51 By checking the Smooth box the direction of the surrounding triangles will also be considered in the calculation This way the contrast between extrusion and remain EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 138 Shift Shift TJ 370 mm Direction Smooth Improved Extrude type Type Real extrusion 9 Move points Settings Figure 7 51 3D Extrusion of one half of a Sphere ing surface won t be so radical With the Improved mode the size of the selected triangles are factored in That means that the direction of the extrusion 1s mostly determined by the bigger triangles For further explanations about the Extrude type and Settings please take a look at chapter 7 7 6 THE MEASURING TOOL 139 Chapter 8 Measuring and Quality Assurance 8 1 The Measuring Tool remy The measuring tool is activated by selecting a part and clicking on the mea suring icon in the toolbar or choosing New Measuring in the Extras menu or Extras submenu of the context menu It allows the measurement of distances between points edges and surfaces as well as radii and angles It opens the measuring screen with the selected part only and provides all measuring options in the tabs
154. ount holes in X Y Direction Depth Design Direction Edges File Font Good Triangles Height Height partitions Invert Colors Function Type in the actual text text primitive or label your part mould whistel define a distance between the threads of screw and nut Determines the color appearance in netfabb only display in the software not in reality number of holes in each direction measures of part in z axis choose a round oval or rectangular shape for the mold models facing up or downwards number of edges the surface has click here to browse for a file determine the font size and effects good triangles have no acute angles there is no angle below 90 measures of part in z axis devides the triangles in the z axis by this certain number Concers Bitmaps and Heightmaps Usually all dark colors are being filled raised With Invert Colors 1t 11 be the other way round and only all bright colors will be filled raised to be continued on next page CREATE PRIMITIVES 55 Term Keep aspect ratio Kind of head Lead length Length Level of detail Level of grey Metric thread Name Nominal diameter Number of gears teeth Pitch Profile rotation angle Radius Rotation Angle Smooth triangles Surface Thickness of bars Thread Length Tolerance Triangle Edge Length Function With a no measures in x axis and y axis can be changed independently available
155. ouse before placing the anchor A preview of the measurement including the measured value 1s displayed changing as you move the mouse across the part At the same time you can rotate and shift the view and zoom in or out with the mouse which enables you to place your anchors very precisely The anchor is set as soon as you release the left mouse button There are several options for the setting of these anchors Point on Surface The anchor is placed wherever you click on the surface of the part Point on Edge The anchor is placed on an edge of the surface If you do not click exactly on the edge the software sets the anchor point on the closest edge Corner Point The anchor is placed on the closest corner point of two or more edges figure 8 7 Point on Cut By clicking on or close to the cutting line an anchor is placed on the cut figure 8 7 yo we Figure 8 7 Measuring of point on cut to corner point A Corner Point on Cut Places anchor on a corner of the cutting line fig ure 8 8 THE MEASURING TOOL 144 Figure 8 8 Measuring of two corner points on cut Show Anchors With a click on the icon to the right anchors can optionally be shown as a yellow rectangular point default When this highlighting of anchors is switched of the yellow measuring line which is visible when the measuring point is dragged sideways will disappear as well making place for the normal arrow These anchors can be used e
156. ow many parts are selected and how many parts are shown or hidden For many modules such as the Boolean Operations module or the measuring tool the options in the tabsheet represent the main features of the module figure 2 13 This makes the tabsheet indispensable for the use of the program To create a smoother workflow you can perform many functions with shortkeys on your keyboard When you are working in the viewing screen F2 starts the Zoom to selection mode F5 provides the platform overview F7 activates the Align to bottom plane mode and F3 switches back to the normal mode Other shortkeys are specified in the description of the concerned function in this document FILE FORMAT OVERVIEW 21 Cuts Status Actions Repair scripts Sheis View psc xr gg i A UC Edges 420864 Border edges 0 Design_fine a HG t 000 mm oak Triangles 280576 invalid orientation 0 L J J 2 4 gt 0 00 mm gt 4 Shells 1 Holes 54 lt cutting disabled gt bd Update auto update Log Reset Design_fine ok Visualization bowt ok information Y Highlight holes Triangle mesh Check successful Length 0 00 mm Volume 0 00 cm Show edges from y 45 Width 0 00 mm Area 0 00 cm Show degenerated faces Settings Height 0 00 mm Triangles 0 Highlight errors Remove original parts 0 0010 0 of 2 parts are selected Surface selection V Remove degenerate faces Tolerance mm Select
157. points on the plane you can move and rotate the plane with your mouse per drag amp drop and you can change its proportions Doing so there is a difference between the left and the right mouse button If you click on the center of the plane you can move the whole plain freely This works in the same way as moving parts figure 6 28 If you use the right mouse FREE CUT 91 button instead of the left the plane can only be moved two dimensionally to its sides It will still cut through parts in the same plane but its boundaries change Figure 6 28 Use drag amp drop on the base point to move the whole cutting plane With the points on the edges and corners the cutting plane is rotated When you move them by drag amp drop two lines in a darker blue are displayed one from the point you are moving to the center of the plane and one along the axis of rotation If you move the corner points the plane is rotated around an axis vertical to the plane running though its center Thus the plane stays in the actual position only its edges and corners are moved This is very important if you want to roll the plane afterwards figure 6 29 Figure 6 29 With the corner points the plane is rotated around a vertical axis The cutting plane can be rolled with the points in the middle of the plane s edges The plane is always rotated round an axis parallel to the edge you clicked on running FREE CUT 92 through the
158. r the background and the default colors for added slices in general can be set In the Part Repair settings you can change the color of the outside and inside of both unselected and selected faces of boundary edges degenerate faces self intersections double surfaces edges the triangle mesh as well as the preview of a surface and selected edges when adding triangles the face preview and the edge preview when adding nodes and the extrusion lines and the extrusion in the feature Extrude Surfaces E in Colors lt Change colors by double click gt Background platform Collision Cuts in X Cuts in Y Cuts in Z Part repair E ex Colors lt Change colors by double click gt Outer shell Inner shell Outer shell selected Inner shell selected Coordinate system in x Coordinate system in Y Coordinate system in Z Boundary edges Coordinate system origin Degenerated faces Highlight color Self Intersections Backface color Edges f Triangle mesh Boolean operations preview Preview triangle Boolean operations add part f Selected edge Boolean operations subtract part Add node face preview color Part color 1 Add node edge preview color Part color 2 a Extrusion lines Part color 3 LJ AA Extrusion Mark enla A Figure 10 9 In the settings every kind of coloration can be altered For the measuring and the test module you can set the color of tested measurme
159. reen of the Slice Commander with the coordinate system the platform and four slice files with their outbox Thanks to the outbox of the top left slice you can see that this slice may stand out of the platform pr 4 93 695 mm Y 114 526 mm i 163 776 mm Figure 9 6 The coordinates of the mouse cursor as specified below the viewing screen Zoom Options for Slices As the slices are two dimensional it is not necessary and not possible to change the perspective But apart from this the viewing of slices in the slice screen works very similar to those in the main screen You can shift the view by holding the central mouse button and moving the mouse If you do not have a central mouse button hold Shift and the right mouse button With the scroll button of the mouse you can zoom in and out If you do not have a scroll button hold both Ctrl and the right mouse button and move the mouse up and down a Also you can use one of four default zoom options available in the toolbar Zoom on all selected files zoom to all slice files or zoom to a selection rectan gle you draw with your left mouse button SLICE SELECTION AND HANDLING 160 Visualizations For the visualization of the slices you can show and hide slices change their color and three options in the context menu Py Slices can be hidden or shown by clicking on the eye next to the slice s name in the project tree or in the context menu Hiding slices t
160. rency FREE CUT 97 Q By clicking on the second button in the tabsheet you switch your mode to Select parts With that mode activated you are no longer able to edit your cutting line Instead all options of the standard interface become available You select parts by clicking on them and you can move and rotate them by drag amp drop Also all context menus of the standard interface are available With Reset in the tabsheet you can remove your polygon and start a new line You automatically get back into the mode Create Edit polygon 6 5 3 Cutting Options In the bottom third of both tabsheet registers there are four boxes representing op tions for the cut itself By ticking or unticking these boxes you can activate and deactivate the options You can cut only selected parts or all parts through which the cutting plane or line runs Selection options are the same as in the standard module When you use the plane boundary the cut is only conducted as far as the outer edges of the plane go If the box is not ticked the parts are cut completely through along the plane independently from the size of the displayed cutting plane This option can only be chosen for cuts with a cutting plane If you Stitch parts open triangle edges are connected Sometimes if the option Triangulate Cut see below is activated the cutting tool produces open edges for example if a part has self intersections which can be connected with this ad
161. reo asm neu prt xas xpr Parasolid xb xt smt smt_txt NX prc prt mf1 arc unv pkg Solidedge asm par pwd psm Solidworks sldasm sldprt Slices sli to be continued on next page Import Export V ARRA ARAA AAA Re Re RSS LS V AAKA AR SS A R Comment can contain color texture can contain color texture can contain color texture can contain color texture can contain color texture can contain color texture Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool Import with CAD Import Tool FILE FORMAT OVERVIEW Format cli slc ssl abf slm cls usf clf png bmp svg dxf ps Toolpath gcode gcd bgc fab Import Export V V V SOS EE Y SS AAA SS Comment Ultimaker Engine Ultimaker Engine fabbster Engine 24 Chapter 3 Project Management There are several methods to manage netfabb projects read and open files and save or export projects and parts To save processing time STL files with a great complexity can be split before adding them to a project For further processing projects can be saved as netfabb project files and parts can be exported into three dimensional or
162. rts or 1f you have groups which do not contain any parts you can remove all empty groups If you click on Ungroup the group you clicked on is removed and the parts it contained are moved into the superordinate group or the Parts section figure 5 18 If you change the color of the group all parts in the group and all parts you add to the group get the same color The icon of the group in the tree is updated so that the sphere above the folder is displayed in the group color If parts are moved out of the group they get back their old color If you Show or Hide a group all parts in the group are shown or hidden You can also do that by clicking on the little eye next to the group in the tree This eye also indicates if the parts of the group are shown or hidden Whenever all parts in the group are shown the eye is orange If all parts are hidden it is grey If some parts are shown and some hidden it is half orange and half grey figure 5 18 od Create new group Remove ci Parts i P o E PB amp Box Group IPP Lock group oe EE Remowe empty groups Box Fixed 100 Ola O Box old 100 a Q Add part BB Pyramid Group amp mg ERSEN amp Pyramid 100 O 3 change color O Pyramid fixed 100 G amp Pyramid copy 100 E hz show group D amp Cylinder 100 6 Ed Hide group Figure 5 18 Left Two groups in the project tree Right The context menu after right clicking on a group Part Number
163. s gt If you right click on the Parts section in the project tree you can activate or deactivate the option Show Part Numbers If it is active a number is displayed next to each part in the project tree figure 5 19 The first part in the project has the number 1 To each additional part the next number is assigned even if parts with lower numbers have already been removed COLLISION DETECTION 69 2 New Group 1 O G House 100 a O amp Pyramid 100 Cb D Flower 100 ala E amp Spider 100 Ts I Figure 5 19 Here the numbers of the parts are shown in the project tree Parts also count as new parts if they are edited for example if they are repaired The numbering of parts may help to keep an overview over projects containing many parts In the same context menu you can also renumber all parts If you do so the parts are given continuous numbers again but still according to how long they have been in the project So the oldest part remaining in the project will get the number one the second oldest the number 2 and so on 5 8 Platform Overview ire The platform overview can be obtained by pressing F5 or is available in the Edit menu or in the toolbar It displays a window with an overview of all parts in the project including part number ID status length width height volume area number of triangles edges and points of the parts Also the total size volume and area of the parts
164. s In the context menu of the axes after right clicking between the axis letter and the SIMPLE CUTTING 87 Figure 6 22 Cutting lines across all three axes with three different viewing options First everything is displayed Second sections before the cut across the Y axis and after the cut across the Z axis are hidden Third the cutting lines are hidden as well 3 Figure 6 23 The resulting split parts of the cut above can be moved separately as Parts Box fixed split split 100 i A Box Fixed split split 100 be A Box Fixed split split split 100 ba A Box Fixed split split split 100 D A Box Fixed split split split 100 E AB Box Fixed splity split splity 100 00D own parts regulation bar you can reset the cutting lines of single axes Cuts can be performed either for all parts or only for selected parts Thus all parts of a project could be affected by a cut The setting you choose in this dropdown menu is adapted automatically in the Free Cut module After performing a cut the cutting line of the axis which was selected for the cut 1s set back the others remain So 1f you want to perform cuts across more than one axis you can repeat the cutting process without the necessity of setting the second and third cutting line one by one That way one part 1s dissected into up to elght parts figure 6 23 FREE CUT 88 6 5 Free Cut
165. s is not ticked the origi nal slices are displayed until the calculations are applied The same calculations can be ultimately implemented by choosing Apply Cal culations in the context menu Please note that calculations are applied auto matically when you export the slice mm 1 8 O As long as the calculations have not yet been applied editing operations with O foe slices can be undone by selecting Clear grouping in the context menu The slice resulting from the operation is removed and a new group is created which will contain the original slices 9 5 1 Boolean Operations amp Removing Self Intersections If one part is selected that contains self intersections you can also remove them in the slices Or if two or more parts are selected you can perform Boolean operations Find both functions in the context menu in the submenu Extended If one part is se lected yov ll find the Remove self intersections button if more parts are selected the Boolean Operation button will be displayed instead The Boolean Operation allows you to merge overlapping slices create an intersection or subtract one slice from the other figure 9 11 Figure 9 11 Top left Two overlapping slices Top right A unification of those slices Bottom left The intersection of the slices Bottom right One slice is sub tracted from the other EDIT SLICES 165 A dialog box appears in which the selected slice files can
166. s Evie il a He ae He Hh He 8 6 Create Smells ip oho ho ee Be BS A Reds BS AS 82 G4 Simple CUADO 222 64 4 baie da a hae baie eee 34 84 Go a ARA ee ee O AS 88 6 5 1 Free Cut with a Cutting Plane 88 6 5 2 Free Cut with a Polygon 94 00 Cutting Options ss is che ee OS AA 97 6 6 Boolean Operations aooo 000 ee eee eee 98 6 7 Triangle Reduction e e o 101 6 8 AA 103 7 Part Repair 105 Jl The RepatrMOqule e eea a a aca a a ee 105 7 2 Repair Viewing Opt0NS o e 107 7 2 1 Zoom and visualization 107 T22 SCOP Planes rinie ir e a 108 Tos SS ECION A E 108 J4 Manual Repait is sacia osua in e bee oe ee ee e a a 113 7 5 Semi Automatic Repalt ee eee ees 115 b l Close Holes ac ci Be a Be es Oe a we oe we aaa a 116 7 5 2 Self I ntersections rd dp Bw 117 Tadeo Sek TASOS ts GG de A Gs Gs So we Eo 118 7 5 4 Fix Flipped Triangles 119 7 5 5 Remove Double Triangles 120 7 5 6 Select Overlapping Triangles 120 7 5 7 Remove Degenerate Faces 121 7 5 8 Extract Selected Triangles As Part 121 7 5 9 Split Non Oriented Edges 122 7 5 10 Wrap partsurface 0 0 0000 eee 122 7 6 Automatic Repair 2 0 00 eee 123 lid Git Trianolo Mesh s onea orea ha ASE ASS AS AS eS ee 125 CONTENTS 4 7 7 1 Refi
167. s Folder lt use last path gt Cells Folder lt use last path gt Profiles Folder lt use last path gt Slice Folder lt use last path gt Figure 10 3 Change the default folders after a double click Display Settings Strength of background gradient In your background there 1s a color gradient gradually changing from bright at the top of the viewing screen to dark at the bottom of the viewing screen The default color is white which becomes grey at the bottom Use enhanced display functions OpenGL 3 The enhanced display functions enables a prettier rendering of the parts If you have troubles with displaying you parts set this function to No Level of detail Use the simple mode for quicker calculation or the advanced mode for a more precise view of the part Highlight center of platform If you choose Yes a large X will indicate the center of the platform Coordinate System The coordinate system in the bottom left of the viewing screen can be altered in size If the planes are shown their minimum and maximum size as well as their GENERAL SETTINGS 190 thickness can be specified The size of the planes in the program varies between the minimum and maximum value depending on the current perspective with planes in the background always displayed larger than those in the foreground The planes if displayed can be used for changing the perspective Slice Commander In case you visualize the prehatches of
168. s conform to each other and ORIENTABILITY Figure 1 5 A closed surface left and a surface with holes right Figure 1 6 Two disconnected left and two connected triangles right Figure 1 7 A mesh consisting of 60 disjoint shells SELF INTERSECTIONS 10 there are no flipped triangles a closed shell separates between outside and inside But if there are flipped triangles this may not be possible Thus even closed parts may be faulty Figure 1 8 The orientation of a triangle is determined by the order of its points 1 4 Self Intersections Finally the surface of a solid body should not contain any self intersections These occur whenever triangles or surfaces of one part cut through each other fig ure 1 9 1 10 For many applications self intersections are very impractical es pecially if the mesh shall be processed further Figure 1 9 Self Intersection The two cubic shells cut through each other SELF INTERSECTIONS 11 Figure 1 10 Left A mesh consisting of two shells with self intersection Right A mesh consisting of one non intersecting shell For most additive fabrication processes three dimensional data has to be converted into two and a half dimensional slice data Here self intersections in the original data result in self intersection in the slices These might cause constructional fail ures or instabilities Therefore 1t 1s essential to remove self intersections
169. s when they are opened again You can tick a box at the bottom of the dialog to always check file quality when the export dialog is started After checking the number of degenerated faces and manifold edges is specified in the text fields Degenerated faces are very tiny or thin triangles and can result in little holes Manifold edges are several triangle edges at the same coordinates and may be split open The tolerance value you can enter below determines the precision with which errors are calculated If the distance between two triangle corner points 1s below the entered value they are interpreted as one point and will be reported SAVE AND EXPORT 37 If there are any problems a red X is displayed on the right If the files are error free a green tick is displayed With the button Repair you can fix the errors automatically The files are rechecked and should become good Sometimes you have to repeat the repair In the register Outbox the dimensions of all selected parts are given First you get the length of the outbox along all three axis then the minimum and maximum values along the axes Fle quay The file quality has not been checked yet Tolerance 0 002 File quality Some file formats do not indude enough information This may result in errors Degenerated triangles create holes 298 Mannifold edges get split 0 ee No problems expected The files should be error free Degenerated triangl
170. slices with the option Show Filling chap ter 9 4 2 you can edit the distance of the grid lines here Additionally you can choose if you want to have grid lines along the X axis the Y axis or along both axes figure 10 4 Also you can edit the default tolerance for point reductions chap ter 9 5 3 You can also edit the tolerance at every single point reduction Figure 10 4 The prehatches of a slice with grid lines along both axes left and grid lines only along Y axis right Parts Library In the Parts Library Section you can edit the default settings for all parameters of all primitive objects you can add to the project see chapter 5 3 Part Repair For the part repair figure 10 5 it is possible to change the default stitch tolerance You do not necessarily have to use that value for the stitching of triangles as you can set the tolerance for every single stitching The minimum edge length for good faces determines which triangles are defined as degenerated in the repair module All triangles with a height lower than this value can be displayed in orange and are deleted with the function Remove degen erate faces see chapter 7 5 7 the orange highlighting of degenerate triangles in the repair module Triangles with an edge shorter than the specified value are marked figure 10 5 GENERAL SETTINGS 19 E Part repair in Colors lt Change colors by double click gt Default stitch tolerance 0 005 mm
171. t slices by clicking on their edges on their names in the project tree or by dragging a selection rectangle around the slices you want to select Selected slices are always framed by a green rectangular selection box with highlighted corners and centers of edges If you select slices in the screen and hold the Shift key slices are added to the selec tion by clicking on them If you hold Ctrl slices can be both added to or removed from the selection by clicking on them If you hold Shift and select slices in the project tree clicking on a slice file selects all slices in the list between the selected slice and the slice you click on 9 4 2 Slice Viewing Options The most obvious difference of the Slice Commander to the normal mode is that the screen 1s underlain by a two dimensional coordinate system showing the slices in the X Y plane If the option Show platform is activated in the View menu the outline of the platform is shown in the slices screen figure 9 5 This is very helpful when you position your slices and prepare you build data for prints especially combined with the option Show Outbox see below The platform can only be seen in layers where it really is Below this screen the position of the mouse cursor is specified figure 9 6 whereas the position on the Z axis depends on which slice you are watching changed with the scroll bar in the context area SLICE SELECTION AND HANDLING 159 Figure 9 5 The sc
172. t to the layer size of the slice netfabb always takes EXPORT AND SAVE SLICES 175 General Export Settings Slice file demo file Start height 0 0000 im End height 12 2000 Layersize o 1000 Layercount 125 Specific Export Settings Export format Slice Layer Interface SLI File name Units 0 0050 Outbox 0 000 0 003 x 25 000 24 977 Max Outbox 0 000 0 000 x 327 675 327 675 El Move parts to origin Figure 9 27 The dialog box for exporting slices the last slice in the Slice Commander So if you have a slice with the layer size 0 1 and export it with layer size 0 14 the first layer 0 14 will be the same as the original layer at 0 1 the second 0 28 will be the same as the original at 0 2 and the third 0 42 will be the same as the original at 0 4 The original layer at 0 3 will be left out If you define a layer size below that of the original some layers will be doubled Below there are the specific export settings At the top of this box is a dropdown menu where you can choose the file type for the export figure 9 28 When the dropdown menu is closed but still selected you can also use the scroll button of your mouse to change the file type The file type you need depends on the machine you use After the file type fill in a file name in the provided text field and choose a target directory in a file browser after you click on the button The specific export settings necessary depe
173. tching determine the hatch distance stripe width and stripe gap figure 9 21 The angle determines the direction of the hatches referring to the X axis with a clockwise rotation Thus if you leave 0 the hatches will be inserted along the X axis If you insert 90 they will run along the Y axis figure 9 22 The Rotation per Layer can be used to give the hatches of different layers different directions In that case only the the first layer of hatches has the angle specified above After that the angle changes with every layer going upwards by the degree you enter here figure 9 23 If you increase the number for Filling only each layer not every layer of the original contour will be filled If you insert 2 for example there will be one filling EDIT FILLING 171 Hatch distance 1 000 Angle 0 000 Rotation per layer 0 000 Filling only each layer 1 Translation per layer 1 000 Sort ype Figure 9 21 The dialog box for creating a filling Figure 9 22 A round contour with filling first a filling with an angle of O then with an angle of 45 layer for every second contour layer Note The Rotation per Layer refers to the filling layers independently from the number of contour layers in between The Translation per Layer determines 1f and how far the hatches are shifted with each layer If you insert zero the hatches of the slice layers will be on top of each other
174. th of edges which are unified Please note that wrong MESH SMOOTHING 103 condition settings for example extremely high values may lead to unsatisfying re sults such as strong distortion or self intersections You can choose the Fast mode which works faster but a little less accurate Show a preview of the reduction by clicking on Calculate and if you want to get back to the original mesh press Re set In the Display options you can make the mesh visible Show triangles and by press ing and holding the Show original mesh button yov ll get to review the triangulation before you reduced it With a check in the Autoupdate box all the changes you make will be displayed on the model immediately This is very useful for checking the new mesh with every change but can lead to long calcuation times when working with complex files If you always want to use the same reduction settings on all your models click on Save settings to make them available later Apply your calculations by pressing OK 6 8 Mesh Smoothing This function smooths rough surfaces and rounds off sharp edges It can be found in the Extras menu or in the context menu after right clicking on the part and choosing Extras It is also available in a reduced version in the Repair mode see 7 7 3 When you start the function the Smoothing frame will appear in the lower right cor ner where you can determine the strength of the smoothing An interation means how often
175. the changes you make will be displayed on the model immediately This is very useful for checking the new mesh with every change but can lead to long calcuation times when working with complex files If you always want to use the same reduction settings on all your models click on Save settings to make them available later Apply your calculations by pressing OK THE REPAIR MODULE 105 Chapter 7 Part Repair 7 1 The Repair Module Whenever any part is damaged and therefore cannot be used for 3D printing a large warning sign with an exclamation mark is displayed in the bottom right of the viewing screen and a little warning sign is placed next to the part in the project tree figure 7 1 Before building these parts they must be selected and repaired in the repair module After selecting a part you can start the repair module with the red cross icon in toolbar in the Extras submenu of the context menu or in the Extras menu in the menu bar o E P Parts 4 O Parti 100 3169 Part 2 100 g O Part3 100 O 2 Part4 100 16 A 2 Part 5 100 6 A 2 Part6 100 9 O Part7 100 6 Figure 7 1 Left This caution sign in the bottom right of the screen indicates that one or more parts in the project are damaged Right The warning signs indicate that parts 3 and 4 are damaged The viewing screen then switches to the repair screen which includes only the selected part In the tabsheet you c
176. the cone are measured and their diameter specified This also creates new anchors in the center of the circles With help of those anchors it is possible to measure the distance of the circles and consequently the height of the cone Three Points on Circle Select three anchor points anywhere on the part A circle running through these points is calculated and its radius is measured figure 8 15 Four Points on Sphere Calculates a sphere through four anchor points and specifies its radius and its center figure 8 16 1 6 Add Note With this option the user can place anchors to add notes In a dialog box the appearance of the note can be changed in terms of the arrow color font color border color background color and level of transparency This can be done in a similar way to the editing of measure points figure 8 5 THE MEASURING TOOL 149 Figure 8 15 Radius measured with three points By measuring three edges of the top surface new anchors are created in the center of these edges These anchors can be used to calculated the radius of the inner circle of the surface Figure 8 16 Radius of a sphere gained by selecting four anchor points on the dome Also an anchor is set at the center of this half sphere 3 1 7 Set Default Modes After right clicking on the icons in the tabsheet you can set your default measuring mode netfabb remembers your settings for setting anchors and for your measuring
177. the dropdown menu on the top and choose if you want to select all parts with more or all parts with less than a certain number of triangles To the right you can enter that number of triangles Select parts by their Z Height You can select parts by their Z Height which can be quite practical for packing a build volume Choose if the parts are supposed to be completely over or under a certain value or if they partially can be smaller or bigger 5 3 Create Primitives Primitives are simple three dimensional objects that are can be created with a few clicks in netfabb After clicking on the Create Primitives icon in the toolbar or choosing the respective option in the Edit menu the user can choose from a list of simple three dimensional objects that can be selected with a double click and CREATE PRIMITIVES 54 inserted into the project figure 5 5 Although their basic geometry is already given there are many parameters that can be specified in detail by the user That way you can create a variety of parts The settings can be saved as default setting for the primitive part by clicking on the button below The button Load Default restores the default settings after the parameters have been changed By clicking on Apply the part is inserted into the project In the following list you can find a short description of each parameter Primitive Parameters Term Bottom Clearance Cap tion Clearance to screw Color C
178. the max distance of parts All triangles below that value will be selected Same with the max angle Below you can set the direction of the triangles With Parallel all triangles that have the same orientation will be selected With Antiparallel it ll be all triangles with an opposite direction Or you can also select in both directions If you want to fix your parameters as standardized settings press Save settings as default If you want to get back to previous values after you ve changed them click on Restore settings SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 121 7 5 7 Remove Degenerate Faces Degenerate faces are triangles which have no surface or only minimal surface In the repair screen they are marked orange figure 7 23 As they do not construct any surface they usually are unnecessary They can come into being dur ing various operations such as file conversion Boolean Operations and all kinds of operations which involve retriangulations Degenerate faces in a file principally do not result in bad parts when manufactured but they may dramatically increase the number of corner points and hatches in the slice files necessary for the production This may cause much longer calculation and production times With this function the degenerate triangles are deleted By setting the tolerance you can set the maximal edge length and height of the triangles which shall be deleted Figure 7 23 The orange marked triangle has no and consequ
179. the surface of the part along that line Triangle edges are inserted along the drawn line and are split open This feature is available in the toolbar in the Mesh Edit menu or the context menu of the screen EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 131 When this mode is activated you can click anywhere on the surface of the part With every additional click a red line is inserted between the last two points you clicked on That way you can draw a line by clicking on the surface of your part If the surface 1s not flat the line may be inserted along existing triangle edges figure 7 39 If the surface is not flat the line may be inserted along existing triangle edges as the path of the line is calculated newly for each flat area When you right click on the screen you have three options in the context menu With Reset Line the line is removed and a new line can be created With Close Line the first an the last point are connected and the line is finished No further points can be added If you click on the surface again the line is removed and a new line is started figure 7 39 x 4 e Ed Figure 7 39 Left A red line is inserted between the points clicked on Center Choose Close Line in the context menu Right The first and the last point of the line are connected The option Insert to mesh includes the closing of the line and has two further effects Firstly triangle edges are inserted along the drawn line and the surface is retrian
180. ther modules Subordinate elements of groups or parts are shown and hidden if you click on the little Plus or Minus on the left side of the part figure 2 2 P Parts oy E amp Group G O amp Pyramid 100 69 4 A 2 House 100 3 69 e Part Repair e E Flower 100 4169 EM Measuring 1 a 4 Distance 16 94 mm E Diameter 0160 00 mm E H E Part analysis E standard analysis E Spider 100 E Slices Es O Pyramid amp 3 Flower G lt gt Structure library amp F Figure 2 2 This project tree includes a group with the two parts Pyramid and House The grey eye indicates that the pyramid is hidden The warning sign for the house indicates that it is damaged A repair has been opened For the part Flower a measuring of a distance and a diameter has been performed and an analysis has been conducted The little box next to the part Spider indicates that the part consists of more than one shell The parts Pyramid and Flower have already been sliced During work with netfabb you can always switch between the different sections elements and operations of the project by simply left clicking on them in the tree If you click on a sliced part in the slices section netfabb will automatically switch to the Slice Commander and select the part you clicked on If you click on a part repair netfabb will automatically switch to the repair module of the superordinate part includ
181. tic renaming for Shells to parts each part name figure 10 7 If you duplicate a part for example the copies will by default be named Part name_c00 Part name_c01 Part name_c02 and so on If several parts are processed by a function the XX stands for the number of parts processed as for example in Merge of 2 parts Any changed renaming options are written in italic letters If you click on the last line Defaults a button appears with which you can restore the default naming settings for all functions CHANGE COLORS 193 10 2 Change Colors The color can be changed in netfabb for parts slices and many other objects and all kinds of visualizations They are always changed in a dialog box which provides every shade of every color of the whole spectrum For parts and slices the color can be changed via the context menu or the menu bar Other colorations are changed via dialog boxes or in the settings In the dialog box for changing the color you have several options figure 10 8 Firstly you can click on a basic color These are part of the installation of the software Secondly you can click anywhere on the spectrum to the right and the respective color is chosen Then you can alter the brightness in a bar to the right That way any color can be created If the brightness is at the top or bottom of the bar the color will always be white or black Basi Y E
182. tions c Load translation file Figure 10 1 The settings menu 10 1 General Settings The settings for netfabb can be changed in the Settings menu After clicking on Settings a window appears where settings for many different aspects of the software can be altered figure 10 2 The settings can either be changed in a dropdown menu by insertion of values or names or by opening a dialog box with a double click on the current setting List of General Settings Admin Settings If you are registered to your computer as administrator you are able to change the GENERAL SETTINGS 186 Attributes Settings General El 5 Admin settings C Language English 2 Unit of length mm z io Show icons in menus Yes E a Proxy Settings E A License Settings Activate netfabb Crash Logger Yes a kS Listen for iPhones iPods No kS netfabb name for iPhones iPods N2012R6 os io Online update enabled Yes E 5 Colors lt Change colors by double dick gt 0 default platform size 470 00 mm x 470 00 mm x 470 00 mm pu fi Always use file preview Yes 2 5 Automatic check for erroneous parts Yes Lan or Resolve Windows Link file names Yes io Ask for saving while deleting part Ne Restore LOD after Project Loading i it Listen for browser plugin 104 Use netProject Cache o Confirm after project saving 114 Use advanced file import E Default folders Display o 24 Strength of bac
183. ve self intersections you ll split of the intersections and the new inner shells and double surfaces will be removed The outer surfaces are then reconnected and a valid shell is being created EDIT SLICES 166 Subtract o Box gt Figure 9 13 Top Settings for a Boolean Operation The box shall be subtracted from the cylinder Bottom left The two overlapping slices before the operation Bottom right The resulting slice 9 5 2 Create Offsets of Slices With the Slice Commander you can create two dimensional offsets of slices They can be used for example to compensate for expected inaccuracies during production with a machine With the option Create Offset in the context and Extras menu you can create either an inner or an outer offset of the slice It creates a new slice of which the layers are based on the shape of the original layers only that they are placed either within or without the original In a dialog box you can enter the preferred distance to the original contours you can edit the roundness for curves of the offset where it goes around corners of the original and you can choose between an inner or an outer offset figure 9 14 This roundness is only relevant when it is necessary that the offset forms a curve EDIT SLICES 167 1 000 mm Roundness 45 A Inner offset E Outer offset Figure 9 14 The dialog box for creating offsets which is the case with outer corners for outer offs
184. ver in the Slice Commander you have the advantage that calculations are performed much quicker as complex 3D tasks are replaced by 2D tasks This reduces the complexity of the data handling For slices there is an own section in the project tree where all slices are organized in the same way as parts in the part section 9 1 The Slicing Process For Slice Files a three dimensional object is cut into horizontal slices and saved as a great collection of two dimensional cross sections with a certain specified thickness Parts or sections of all selected parts can be sliced with any layer size by dragging them from the parts section into the slices section in the project tree figure 9 1 Alternatively you can select the part and choose Slice Selected Parts in the Extras menu If more than one part is selected all selected parts are sliced together THE SLICING PROCESS 155 The part is then sliced into layers with a certain thickness which are parallel to the X Y plane figure 9 2 Parts ii a e Mew Group 1 6 o S casing 15 e AD stick 100 E gear 100 a 3 Shell 100 E Figure 9 2 A three dimensional part left and three of its slices right Three parameters must be set for the slicing process The layer size determines the thickness of the slices which directly influences the number of layers created fig ure 9 3 If you plan to build the part it is recommended to adjust the layer s
185. verted SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 115 Figure 7 13 A node is added in the middle of a triangle 7 5 Semi Automatic Repair Semi automatic repair options are applied to the whole part or the whole selection of triangles surfaces and shells They can be found in the context menu and in the Re pair menu The most important are also available in Actions tabsheet figure 7 14 as a brgaHapluaa ta AQUI Expand selection Shrink selection Reduce Triangles Smooth triangles Overlapping triangles Refine triangle mesh Z Compensation Flip selected triangles Remove selected triangles Automatic repair Fix flipped triangles Close trivial holes Close all holes Extract selected triangles as part Stitch selected Remove degenerate faces Split non oriented edges Cut surfaces Extrude surfaces Advanced Triangle Selection Holes Self Intersections Stitch triangles Fix flipped triangles Select Shells with negative volume Refine triangle mesh Automatic repair Figure 7 14 Repair context menu and Actions tabsheet SEMI AUTOMATIC REPAIR 116 7 5 1 Close Holes There are three ways to close holes without manually inserting the missing triangles First after right clicking on the edge of a hole marked yellow 1f the visu alization option Highlight Holes is activated you can choose the option Close Hole in the context menu Thus single
186. wn menu on the left you can choose if you want to select parts with outbox dimensions larger or smaller than those values Below you can choose if you want only one outbox dimension or all outbox dimensions to match the conditions defined above With the option Ignore orientation the values are no longer assigned to one specific axis So it does not matter how the parts are oriented CREATE PRIMITIVES 53 Select parts by volume To select parts by volume open the dropdown menu on the top and choose if you want to select all parts with a volume larger or smaller than a certain value To the right you can enter that limit value in the text field Please note that parts with holes do not have a volume and cannot be selected here Select parts by quality If you select parts by quality you can choose from several criteria in the dropdown menu Valid parts are all closed and correctly oriented parts Faulty parts are all parts which are not valid Closed parts are all parts without any open triangle edges or holes The orientation is ignored Parts with holes do have open edges Oriented parts unlike non oriented parts are parts where all triangles are oriented correctly with the outside of a triangle on the outside of the part Further options are Parts with more than one shell Parts with exactly one shell and Parts without triangles Select parts by their number of triangles To select parts by their number of triangles open
187. wn menu which includes all repair functions which can be added to a script This can be done by selecting a function and click on Add Clicking Clear deletes all functions from the script Finally the repair script can be saved to your disc for example to be copied to other computers or 1t can executed directly 7 7 Edit Triangle Mesh 7 7 1 Refine Triangle Mesh a This feature is available in the Mesh Edit menu or the context menu if you right click on the screen This feature is available in the Mesh Edit menu or the context menu if you right click on the screen It refines the triangle mesh minimizing the maximum edge length to a new value which must be specified in the dialog box figure 7 30 Below are the information about the size of the selected faces and the length of the longest edge It helps you to find appropriate values for the triangle refinement figure 7 31 You can either refine the triangle mesh of the whole part or by ticking the box in the dialog only refine selected triangles The existing triangles are split into smaller triangles until no triangles with too long edges remain The number of triangles increases often dramatically The shape and outer appearance of the part is not changed during this process However a refinement of the triangle mesh can be essential for subsequent operations such as making a selection or smoothing triangles EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 126 Refine triangle mesh Ma
188. x Edge Length Selected triangles only Size of selected faces length 7429 Width 49 22 Height 4 00 Longest Edge of selected faces Length of longest Edge Figure 7 31 The triangle mesh of the selected side walls of this cube is refined 7 7 2 Reduce Triangles This feature can be found in the Mesh Edit menu or in the context menu after right clicking on a selected triangle You have to have at least 5 triangles selected for this function In the triangle reduction netfabb unifies triangles to create bigger one When you start the function a dialog box appears with the tabs Basic Reduction and Advanced Reduction The basic mode is useful as it proceeds very quickly If you need more accurate results we recommend to use the advanced mode In both dialog boxes you can see how many triangles are selected and you can set if you want to reduce the triangle count to a certain target count or if you simply want to reach the lowest possible number of triangles If the triangle mesh is very much finer than necessary it is recommended to conduct the triangle reduction in several steps for example halving the triangle count Otherwise you may get unwanted side EDIT TRIANGLE MESH 127 effect like double surfaces figure 7 32 s u jangl 10 j Basic Reduction Advanced Reduction Reduction parameters Current Triangle Count GRE g Basic Reduction Advanced Reduction Reduction parameters Current Triangle Count 29277
189. x specifying how many parts in the project are hidden gt Y Parts AS are 100 Figure 4 6 Click on the eye to hide a part To prevent an obstructed view to parts in the background marked parts can also be highlighted and displayed in the foreground by holding the h key In the context menu of the viewing screen and of parts in the project tree or in the View menu several additional options are available for showing and hiding parts If you right click on empty space in the screen you can either show all parts hide all parts invert the visibility of all parts or hide unselected parts so only your selected parts are displayed If you right click on a part in the screen or in the project tree you can either show or hide only your selected parts or hide unselected parts as well As the selection may change with the right click it can be necessary to access this function in the project tree or in the View menu In the screen it makes only sense if at least one part of your selection is shown already and you click on that part Level of Detail The level of detail of the displayed project can be changed either in the View menu or in the toolbar You can choose from several levels between 0 1 and 100 These levels are implemented for all selected parts or if no parts are selected for all parts figure 4 7 In the project tree the current level of detail is specified in brackets after the part name DIS
190. you want to repeat the smoothing process With every iteration the following process takes place For each corner point of the triangle mesh the average position of the adjacent corner points is calculated The position of the first corner point is then adjusted to this average value That way surfaces become smoother and corners and sharp edges of objects become rounder and are pulled inwards Prevent shrinking The part will be deformed but the volume won t get any smaller Independent of triangulation The smoothing doesn t happen on the basis of the triangle mesh but of the actual part shape This way you hardly get any deformation effect Striking edges will be retained less rough surfaces will be smoothed To have a more regular triangle mesh and improve smoothing you can refine the mesh and reduce the max edge length Show a preview of the smoothing by clicking on Calculate and if you want to get back to the original mesh press Reset In the Display options you can make the mesh visible Show triangles and by press MESH SMOOTHING 104 Prevent shrinking Independent of triangulation p 10 00 iterationen Prevent shrinking Independent of triangulation Recalculate Display F Show triangles Figure 6 43 Up The original mesh Down Smoothed triangle mesh ing and holding the Show original mesh button you ll get to review the triangulation before you smoothed it With a check in the Autoupdate box all

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