Model As OUTLINES Guide Only?

[mitchfx]

Is there a way to force a model to be used by S3D to define outline perimeters only? I have a model I'm creating in 3ds Max that is basically thin, curved parts that are all flat to the floor surface. What I want to be able to do is have Simplify use these shapes as a path for laying down a layer (or layers) of extrusion and define a SPECIFIC WIDTH in S3D using the Extrusion Width value and let the nozzle trace out my parts with a single outline along this path.

If I make the walls of my 3d model thin enough that S3D doesn't try to do two or more perimeters (which I do NOT want), it seems to want to simply ignore the model. In other words if my model has a wall thickness of 0.2mm and I set the Extrusion width to 0.45 then it gets skipped in the slicing preview. If I make my model's walls thicker to be closer to 0.45mm, then it often ends up getting "double" traced with two outlines which looks much less clean and pretty than a single outline.

Pretty confusing to try and explain but hopefully someone will understand my question

[JoeJ]

It kinda depends on the part, but here's what I usually do

Advanced tab, enable the "merge all outlines into single solid model" option. This will make everything one solid part so that it is easy to trace an outline for it.

Infill tab, set infill percentage to zero. We only want to print the perimeters.

Layer tab, set number of outline perimeters to 1 and then set top/bottom solid layers to whatever you want.


Now when you print it, it will just do a single outline around the outer contour of the part. You could also enable vase mode on the Layer tab if you wanted