[FIXED] Simplify3D V5 no longer useable for RC airplane prints

[dsiegfried]

The problem with your model is that it is not composed of solid objects, the walls have no thickness. The resulting STL is not printable because it is not a water-tight mesh. When I bring it into Netfabb it has a number of mesh errors and when I try to correct these it simply closes up the structure to make it one solid mass.
The only way to fix this is to go back into the CAD program where it was created and draw all the parts as solid objects instead of walls.

[pstasek]

Guys, we've been there already, no need to reinvent the wheel.

The models were never designed as a solid object, taking advantage of specific Simplify3D slicing mode to allow designing internal trussing within a single pass shell. If the walls had thickness, it would be finite. This way we're able to decide, how many perimeters thick the walls will be. I admit it's kind of an intentional hack.

Imagine the internal trussing as the intersection between these cylinders. Initially, we took advantage of Simplify3D not joining the intersecting meshes along with variable settings across Z heights and promoted it as the go-to slicer for this task since 2015.


PrusaSlicer developers recently kindly implemented a new slicing mode called Even/Odd - it's the v4 behaviour shown in the picture above in my previous post to allow slicing of our models.

I'm pretty sure, we need the option to switch between v4 and v5 slicing modes, otherwise, Simplify3D won't support slicing our models anymore.

We were experimenting with flipping normals (top side of triangles) on some models, such as B-25 to allow slicing in PrusaSlicer before they provided the Even/Odd mode but it didn't provide any satisfactory results anyway. That's probably why you see some internal structures in some models but never all of them.

[jfkansas]

The problem with your model is that it is not composed of solid objects, the walls have no thickness. The resulting STL is not printable because it is not a water-tight mesh. When I bring it into Netfabb it has a number of mesh errors and when I try to correct these it simply closes up the structure to make it one solid mass.
The only way to fix this is to go back into the CAD program where it was created and draw all the parts as solid objects instead of walls.

Problem is v4 handled it fine. V5 doesn't work, so something changed in model repair between the versions.

[dsiegfried]

Problem is v4 handled it fine. V5 doesn't work, so something changed in model repair between the versions.

In V4 the setting that gets it to work the way you want is to select "Non-Manifold Segments" > Discard.
But in V5 when you select the similar option "Non-Manifold Segments" > "Discard Invalid Segments", it does not have the same effect.
It seems like that's the option that is functioning differently in V5?

[InspGadgt]

Problem is v4 handled it fine. V5 doesn't work, so something changed in model repair between the versions.

In V4 the setting that gets it to work the way you want is to select "Non-Manifold Segments" > Discard.
But in V5 when you select the similar option "Non-Manifold Segments" > "Discard Invalid Segments", it does not have the same effect.
It seems like that's the option that is functioning differently in V5?

That wasn't it...it worked regardless of the change in that setting previously.

[InspGadgt]

No more updates from Simplify3D on this issue?

[Funboard56]

Hello,
Yesterday i received the Money-Back and i am disapointed.
I print only planes with my printers and V5 is unusable for this application.
All pieces are not touch with this default, no problem with the tail parts for exemple.
But with the wings all parts are wrong.
I hope Jason will found the problem, i 'll be back !
For this particular application, jason's algorithm is the best.

[Funboard56]

Just for information, PrusaSlicer 2.4.2 has the same problem, the inside is empty, like S3D V5.
I am talking about the last plane from 3DLabs, the P51 Addimp.

[Funboard56]

Hello,
Is somebody try the new version 5.0.1 ?

[mgbnetus]

Yes, there was a post in the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/4005054 ... 408558556/

With Simplify3D v5.0.1 the issue of not slicing the internal features has been fixed. In factory files you need to set the Advanced tab / Slicing Region Repair Mode to "Alternate Fill" and Infill tab / Solid Infill Threshold Area to 0. Thanks to Simplify3D for addressing this issue.