Printability Check

Sonneblom Digitaal in Modeling

Printability Check 1.0.0

A one-click traffic-light report that tells you if a mesh will slice: holes, non-manifold edges and verts, inside-out faces, separate shells, zero-area faces and intersections, plus size in mm and triangle count. Blender 4.2 LTS or newer, tested on 4.2 LTS and 5.1 (and 5.2 LTS).

Install

  1. Extension zip (recommended): printability_check-1.0.0.zip. Drag it into Blender, or go to Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions, open the drop-down at the top right and choose Install from Disk.
  2. Legacy zip: printability_check-1.0.0-legacy.zip. Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install from Disk, then tick Printability Check.

The panel is in the 3D Viewport sidebar. Press N and open the Print tab.

Check a model, step by step

  1. Import or open your model (File > Import > STL, OBJ or 3MF).
  2. Set 1 Blender unit =. STL files are almost always in millimetres, so choose 1 mm. The line under it shows how many millimetres one unit is now.
  3. Select one or more mesh objects and click Check Printability. You can also do this in Edit Mode; your unsaved edits are included.
  4. Each object gets a box with its verdict: Ready to slice (green), Should print, check the amber rows (amber) or Will likely fail, fix the red rows first (red).
  5. Below the verdict there is one row per check with the count. With Explain results on, amber and red rows have a short line that says what it means for your print.
  6. Click Select next to a row: Blender switches to Edit Mode and selects exactly the geometry that was counted (edges for holes and non-manifold edges, verts for touching or loose verts, faces for the other checks). Hover over the button to read the explanation again.
  7. Fix the problem your way, then click Check Printability again. Clear Results empties the panel.

The checks

Row Colour when found What is counted
Holes Red Open edges (edges with only one face), and how many separate holes they form.
Non-manifold Red Edges with 3 or more faces, loose edges (no face), loose verts, and verts where two parts touch at one point.
Inside-out faces Red Faces wound against their neighbours, and whole closed shells whose normals all point inwards.
Shells Amber Separate pieces (connected through shared verts). Select picks every piece except the biggest.
Zero-area faces Amber Faces with an area below the zero-area size squared, or with an edge shorter than that size.
Intersections Amber Faces that cut through other faces of the same object. Neighbouring faces that share a vertex are not counted.
Size Info The object's size in mm along X, Y and Z, with its scale and rotation.
Triangles Info The number of triangles the mesh exports as.
Modifiers Info Shown when the object has modifiers: they are not part of the check.

Settings

Setting Default What it does
1 Blender unit = Auto (scene units) Auto reads Scene > Units: Blender's default scene counts 1 unit as 1 m, and unit scale 0.001 means 1 unit = 1 mm. You can also choose 1 mm, 1 cm, 1 m or 1 inch. Only the size row and the zero-area size use it.
Check intersections On Also look for faces that cut through other faces. It is the slowest check; turn it off for a quicker result on huge meshes.
Explain results On Show the plain-English line under amber and red rows.
Zero-area size (mm) 0.001 Edges shorter than this, and faces with an area below this size squared, count as zero-area.

Tips

  • Check before you export: a green verdict means the mesh is closed, consistently oriented and in one piece.
  • Amber is a "look at it" colour. Several shells are fine for a plate of parts; intersections are usually merged by the slicer.
  • Wrong size? Set 1 Blender unit = to 1 mm for STL files.
  • Select all the parts of a print plate and check them in one go; each object gets its own box.

Limits

  • Report and select only. It never repairs or changes the mesh.
  • It checks the base mesh, not modifier results. Apply modifiers to check the final shape.
  • No wall-thickness, overhang or bed-size checks.
  • On an open surface, the smaller side of a group of faces is reported as inside out, because there is no inside to compare with.
  • Mirrored objects (negative scale) are judged as they look in the viewport.

More tools from Sonneblom Digitaal

At the bottom of the panel there is a small More tools from Sonneblom Digitaal box with two buttons. Print Fix opens the Superhive page of our separate, paid repair add-on in your browser; All our add-ons opens our shop page. Nothing is opened unless you click, and the add-on makes no network calls.

Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later. Made by Sonneblom Digitaal.

$1

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Details
Blender Extension Compatible Yes
Published about 3 hours ago
Blender Version 4.2 - 5.1
Extension Type Add-on
License GPL

Sonneblom Digitaal

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