Increasing thickness of a model

I have this pretty elaborate 3D print I want to do. I have two problems, one is I printed a rough draft of the model and found that it is extremely thin in places, so thin that parts of it were barely printed and ripped off when I removed the print. For the first task, I want to add a 1 - 2 mm backing to the print. I don’t want to extrude the model since it is a relief print, I simply want to add a solid back to it. I have Fusion 360 and can combine models but I’m not sure how to create a new model with the same profile as this one.

The second problem, in the new Luban when I open the stl it says the model needs repair and tries to repair it but hangs at 75%. When I open it Fusion 360 it says “Mesh is not closed. Mesh does not have a positive volume.” I’m guessing this is why Luban is having a hard time repairing it. Does anyone know how I can fix this in Fusion 360.

I’ve attached a photo of the model.

Thanks
Tim

I don’t have Fusion360, so I can’t give advice specific to it. But if I was looking to add a 2mm back in the exact shape of the first layer, I’d copy the object, and slice off everything but the bottom 0.2mm. Then I’d select that 0.2mm layer (or whatever your layer height is), and scale it up to 2mm. Then line up the original object on top of the plate, and join them together.

If that’s more work than you want to do, you could also try scaling the object in Z. You’ll end up with more texture, but that might be enough to make the thin parts thick enough to be removed. Or print the object on a raft. It should be easier to separate the object from a raft than from the bed.

Sections so thin they tear can also be a sign of poor calibration. I can reliably remove a 0.05mm sheet printed on my Original. When that sheet starts to tear when I remove it, I check my calibration. A raft will also help protect you from those calibration issues.

As to the mesh problems, try searching the forums for “mesh mixer”. There have been a lot of good advice telling people how to use that tool to fix objects with problems.

Hi Tim,

I admittedly fumble around in Fusion 360 and do not feel entitled to give advice for Fusion 360. However, I can tell what I usually do if I need to modify a model (as long as the modification does not get too complex): Actually I found Windows 3D Builder a program that is quickly to learn and intuitively to use. It has clear limitations regarding the complexity it can master, but just adding a bit of thickness is easy there. Import the existing model, if asked, let it repair the object (may take a while, be patient), than add a cube of desired dimensions to the object and save as STL. Alternatively, use the “extrude” function.

That said: The relief you show I guess would look gorgeous as CNC milling! Did you consider this instead of 3D printing it?

Cheers, Hauke

if it was me i would just open it in fusion and project the object onto a new sketch which will put its outline onto the new sketch and then extrude to the thickness you want and merge it.
as for the model not being closed i couldn’t tell you what to do without doing it myself first.

I did also mill it. I did it in walnut which may have been a bad choice. The borders came out beautiful but the faces lack detail. There is so much going on in the model that it might just have to be printed on a printer with larger XY dimensions. I just hung it up somewhere people will only be able to look at it from a distance, lol.

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Would you mind to send a picture? Would be curious how it turned out. What kind of milling bits did you use?

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