Simplify 3D leaving infill voids sometimes

[pyronaught]

Anyone ever see S3D just stop printing infill for several layers and then start up again? This leaves an internal void that is not visible form the outside since it keeps printing the outer perimeter shell when this bug happens, but if your parts are under pressure it creates a weak spot where they fail. Whenever this happens, the model passes the non-manifold edge check just fine and there are no weird planes or lines shooting through the model at the trouble spot. Everything checks out just fine, but if you step through the cross section views you can see the slicer just decides to stop placing infill for some random number of layers. I've tried splitting the model into two different processes right at the height where the void appears, but then the void just shifts to another height-- sometimes appearing in the first process and sometimes moving to the second process. Changing the infill pattern has no effect either. Luckily this doesn't happen very often, but when it does it is very annoying since the cause is invisible and I can't find a way to hack a solution using the settings.

[zemlin]

Changing the layer thickness slightly has always worked for me to get around S3D slicing issues. Have you tried adding or subtracting .005mm to the layer thickness?

[pyronaught]

I didn't try that, but it might be a Rhino 3D issue instead of S3D. If I export the STL file directly from SolidWorks where it was created then I don't get the voids, but if I export the model from SolidWorks into a STEP file, then import that into Rhino and export the final STL from Rhino, that's when I get the voids. Something in that process is creating an STL file that gives S3D problems. Some things are just easier to do in Rhino than SolidWorks, but I guess I'll have to cut Rhino out of the process when developing models on SolidWorks. I've noticed sometimes the STEP conversion causes open geometry too. I guess it is just best to avoid intermediate conversions and go straight to STL from the original source.

[jimc]

have you tried saving as iges then bringing that into rhino? might work better. i have never seen thins happen with anything i have designed in rhino and just exported as an stl so there is something going on with the conversion of different filetypes

[pyronaught]

I've had other people send me IGES files from solidworks and they were more problematic than the STEP files. Some I could not even read into Rhino at all.