How to save on material costs - Tutorial on how to hollow out your model

[bolsoncerrado]

How to save on material costs
Tutorial on how to hollow out your model

So, you made a cool project and you want to get it printed on a high-end 3D printer that captures all the details of your sculpt.

Because these printers print your models completely solid, your prints might require a lot of material which quickly increases the price to a point that you are having doubts of having it printed.

With this simple 4 step tutorial I’ll show you how you can very easily bring down the amount of material required to print your model by hollowing it out!

You’ll need a free copy of Meshmixer, if you don’t have it, you should get it here:
http://www.meshmixer.com/
Believe me, you want it, it’s a great little tool that is capable of doing incredibly complex operations.

Now, the tutorial itself:

1. Load the Model -> click "Edit" -> click "Hollow"

2. Then select how thick you want the walls to remain, in this case I was planning on printing on the Form 1+, so 2 mm was good enough for me.

3. Before accepting, make sure that you add some holes to your model by double clicking the surface of your model where you want the excess material to come out of. If you misplaced a hole, you can easily remove it by double clicking the little red globe in the middle of the green cylinder.

4. Now, simply click “Accept” and you’re done, it’s that easy!


Now the difference between material amounts before and after!

Original model

After hollowing

Finally, I do want to add that I added internal supports just to make sure the entire print would work out correctly so the final volume turned out a bit higher then 20.0 mL


I hope this tutorial was useful to you guys! Here is the final result:

Source

[Daby]

Can you tell us by how much percentage the filament uses is reduced if you use this technique of "emptying" a model? Have to say that it's quite easy to do, at first glance. So, that even I, a beginner could handle it.

[bolsoncerrado]

It will depend on the model, of course, but it can save you not only filament but print time!

[Daby]

It will depend on the model, of course, but it can save you not only filament but print time!

For a 25cm tall model, how long do you estimate the printing time will be?

[bolsoncerrado]

It does not matter how tall. It matters about its design. A 1mm diameter 25cm tall cilinder which is hollow will print faster than a multicurve high density poly which is 20x20x25....

[Daby]

It does not matter how tall. It matters about its design. A 1mm diameter 25cm tall cilinder which is hollow will print faster than a multicurve high density poly which is 20x20x25....

Many thanks for clearing this out. I would get in touch with you if more questions arise.

[Susanne]

Here are some factors I have found helpful to consider:

Print Time - Size, support material, gcode artefacts, essentially anything I can do to reduce time.
Post Processing Time - Less support - less cleanup. Optimizing bed adhesion can save time if print lots of parts.

[TroyWhite]

Many thanks for clearing this out. I would get in touch with you if more questions arise.

First, open your model in Meshmixer. You can orient it identically to your preset in PreForm, if it makes it easier to find the correct location for the vent