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stl file errors - "inverted normals"

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Message 1 of 5
qbqdavid
3189 Views, 4 Replies

stl file errors - "inverted normals"

Hi. I have a model that looks great in IF, but when I export it to .stl both shapeways and imaterialise say it's unprintable because of file errors. 

 

A helpful person at shapeways says it has "inverted normals" which I can see in netfabb basic. 

 

But I don't know what she's talking about. 

 

What are "normals" and how can I fix them?

 

I'll attach the IF file. (System won't let me attach .stl file. That might tell me something right there.)

 

Thanks!

 

David

4 REPLIES 4
Message 2 of 5
Phil.E
in reply to: qbqdavid

David,

 

I opened your model in Fusion 360 and found two solid bodies and one surface body. The surface body is just a cylinder shape. See the attached image, is that what you expect to find?

 

None of the faces show reversed normals. In Fusion 360 (and Inventor Fusion for Mac) you can see the "reverse" side as a golden colored face. See attached image. Using Surface/Patch tools, you can click on these surfaces and use a command called Reverse Normal to flip them, however I don't see any problem with your model.

 

surface__normals.png

 

You can try it yourself, get Fusion 360 here.

http://fusion360.autodesk.com/about

 

 





Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.


Message 3 of 5
qbqdavid
in reply to: Phil.E

Hi Phil,

 

Thanks for the reply. The problem is, that surface body should not be in there. It's not in my model, nor apparent in the output files I have. 

 

FYI, at the direction of the folks at Shapeways, I was able to remove the extra elements using Netfabb and everything printed fine.  

 

Thanks!

 

David

Message 4 of 5
Phil.E
in reply to: qbqdavid

Actually, the body is in your file. The visibility has been turned off for some reason.

 

See the images below, they show how to find and delete the problem surface body in your model.

 

fixing the file in Fusion 1.png

 

fixing the file in Fusion 2.png





Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.


Message 5 of 5
qbqdavid
in reply to: Phil.E

Oh, that's interesting. Seems like that would have been a much easier fix. 🙂

Interesting that iMaterialize gave me the errors it did.

Anyway, thanks!

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