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Additive manufacturing · Lesson 3: Prepare the model and the file

Orientation, infill, wall thickness, shrinkage, file formats and export settings in SOLIDWORKS.

Lesson goal

Deliver a clean file to the printer, correctly oriented and fine enough for the required accuracy.

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2 videos

✎

1 exercise

Intermediate

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Prerequisite: Lesson 2

1. Watch the videos

Dassault Systèmes videos hosted on MySolidWorks: they open in a new tab and a free account is enough. Watch them in order.

Model PreparationVideo 1▶Model PreparationOrient the part, and the effect of infill, wall thickness and shrinkage.↗ File Export SettingsVideo 2▶File Export SettingsFile formats accepted by printers and export settings in SOLIDWORKS.↗

2. Key takeaways

1

Orientation affects strength, surface finish and the amount of support: a part is weaker between layers.

2

The infill rate and wall thickness set the strength and the amount of material used.

3

Material shrinkage may require adjusting the dimensions of tight fits.

4

An export resolution that is too coarse creates visible facets on fillets: make it finer for small parts.

Tip

Once your export settings are validated on a test part, save them as defaults: every following part comes out with the same quality.

3. Do the exercise

Prepare an angle bracket for printing:

  • choose the orientation that minimizes supports and justify it
  • export it with a coarse resolution, then a fine one
  • compare the file sizes and the look of the fillets
✓To check: The fine-resolution file shows smooth fillets, with no visible facets on screen.

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