Program crashes on "looking for overhangs

[Mcleod]

Just looking for some assistance on how to fix a problem I have while trying to prepare to print. No matter what I try the program continues to crash when at the stage of "looking for overhangs". prepare to print button is pressed and down in the bottom left corner the text "looks for overhangs" persists. CPU usage goes to virtually 100% and stays there. Have left for up to half hour and no change. Process settings work fine on other models but this one really creates some issues.

Have tried repairing the model with Simplify3D, meshmixer and netfabb but still no change.

Any assistance would be great on where to look. I can't upload the model unfortunately due to IP issues.

Thanks,

Angus

[CompoundCarl]

Well it's going to be hard to help if you can't share the model.

Does this happen with every model you slice, or just this one? For example, if you keep the same settings but import a different model, does it slice fine?

[Mcleod]

thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it makes things difficult not providing the models. To answer your question the program slices fine with most other models. I say most because I have had this problem before with a similar model to the one I am trying to slice at the moment. I had the same issue a couple weeks ago with this similar model. I couldn't get it to slice so I reinstalled Simplify3D and that appeared to fix it. Didn't think anything of it until yesterday when it failed again. The models I am trying to slice are fishing lure's, there are two halves and I duplicate both.

After submitting the forum post I tried some more attempts and did finally get it to slice but only with one half of the fishing lure and no duplicates. Tried various changes to the process but couldnt identify anything in particular which made it succeed that time. After that I kept persisting and did manage to get a successfull slice of the desired configuration ( one of each half of the lure plus a duplicate of each). I noted the following for the successful print,

1. When loading Simplify3D with the desired configuration the following was shown in the bottom left corner, "Successfully parsed model with 49528 triangles"
2. After successfully slicing the desired configuration the following was shown in the bottom left corner, "Previewing file from line 1 to 1370529 (layer 0 to 95)

Dont know whether these mean anything, any further assistance you could provide would be great, some advice on a setting to check / uncheck or a log file or something to give me some direction on where the issue might be.

Regards,

Angus

[CompoundCarl]

Well if the same settings work fine for other parts, then I would tend to think it's a problem with that specific model

[Mcleod]

Thanks for the feedback. The fact that the settings work on other simpler models only means they can be sliced without error. No errors are thrown at any stage by the program and indeed it can sometimes complete the slice as I have noted. I doubt very much that a hanging program would be acceptable by the Simplify3D team regardless of the model condition. Likewise I would not think they would be happy that sometimes it works and sometimes it hangs, hence why I have asked the question about what might be going on. To check the model I have run a couple other slicing programs and they worked no dramas. I don't want to use them though as I paid for this program and it is great (also need the manual support placement), just need some guidance on some settings or something to change.

Angus

[JohanHoltby]

I have the same issue. After waiting for about 15 mins it did got loose.
This is not fast so something must be going on.

I have posted a ticket to the support with stl files and factory files.

[zemlin]

I have had models do this and have been able to tie it back to a few variables in the print settings. Here's my thread on the topic:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4505
I've also seen the Extra Inflation Distance have an effect where zero would slice, but a larger number would not.

For debugging, go back to the default profile and see if that slices. If it does, then compare the default settings to what you were trying and one at a time you can change the settings and see which one initiates the hang.