Custom/in-house 3Shape articulator forcing models to print solid?

[tuyere]

Howdy,
I've designed and implemented a few in-house articulators for our lab to meet the requests of various departments, and we use them exclusively in preference over other articulators available in 3Shape. So far they've mostly worked fine, once I've figured out how 3Shape wants you to orient parts so it can combine them into a finished articulator interface, but one particular design makes the models they've been added to turn solid, instead of hollow as specified. Solid parts dramatically increase the print time on our Carbons, so it's a nonstarter for us. Very annoying because this articulator design is strongly requested by Model Prep. I've implemented 3 or 4 different articulator styles with all originally-modelled components so I know how to do so correctly, and this design works fine for full arches but always solidifies quads, which has not been a problem previously. Anybody run into anything like this before?

 

[Sevan P]

What are you looking to do hollow the models?

 

[MrNeverFixit]

Use meshmixer to make it hollow after you generate the cam output from 3shape. Then send it to your printer.

 

[Beldent Inc.]

Howdy,
I've designed and implemented a few in-house articulators for our lab to meet the requests of various departments, and we use them exclusively in preference over other articulators available in 3Shape. So far they've mostly worked fine, once I've figured out how 3Shape wants you to orient parts so it can combine them into a finished articulator interface, but one particular design makes the models they've been added to turn solid, instead of hollow as specified. Solid parts dramatically increase the print time on our Carbons, so it's a nonstarter for us. Very annoying because this articulator design is strongly requested by Model Prep. I've implemented 3 or 4 different articulator styles with all originally-modelled components so I know how to do so correctly, and this design works fine for full arches but always solidifies quads, which has not been a problem previously. Anybody run into anything like this before?

Hello,
I created our own articulators as well and the parts I've created I cannot hollow them!
I was thinking of creating the articulators with hollowed stl's already .
I have a huge part that hollows but not all of it.

We have a hollowed material I use as well

 

[tuyere]

What are you looking to do hollow the models?

We have to print most of our models hollow because print times increase dramatically with solid models on the Carbon, like often twice as long. Solid prints will almost always increase print times, but the Carbon is particularly sensitive to this effect, I believe because there are no proper peel forces involved (the resin never cures directly on a film like with typical DLP/LCD prints, but at a boundary layer slightly above it) so the suction available to replenish resin at the cure sites is reduced.

Use meshmixer to make it hollow after you generate the cam output from 3shape. Then send it to your printer.

We run hundreds of models a day, any step like this would need to be automated or batch-suited. Opening up individual prints and manually hollowing each one by one isn't practical. The best we could probably do is to set up jobs in a hollowing-capable nesting suite like Prusa Slicer; set up the job there, hollow everything, then export the whole plate as an STL and drop it into the final nesting suite (Carbon's nesting software in our case). This still isn't a great solution, we're starting to use Oqton for our printer nesting and having to use a third-party nesting program in this way isn't compatible with that workflow.

Hello,
I created our own articulators as well and the parts I've created I cannot hollow them!
I was thinking of creating the articulators with hollowed stl's already .
I have a huge part that hollows but not all of it.

We have a hollowed material I use as well

That's interesting, glad to know it isn't just us. For what it's worth, my previous articulators let the models hollow properly, there's just something about this one design that throws a wrench in things.
I might reach out to 3Shape about this, if it's a known problem they'll probably have more to say about it.

 

[Beldent Inc.]

We have to print most of our models hollow because print times increase dramatically with solid models on the Carbon, like often twice as long. Solid prints will almost always increase print times, but the Carbon is particularly sensitive to this effect, I believe because there are no proper peel forces involved (the resin never cures directly on a film like with typical DLP/LCD prints, but at a boundary layer slightly above it) so the suction available to replenish resin at the cure sites is reduced.


We run hundreds of models a day, any step like this would need to be automated or batch-suited. Opening up individual prints and manually hollowing each one by one isn't practical. The best we could probably do is to set up jobs in a hollowing-capable nesting suite like Prusa Slicer; set up the job there, hollow everything, then export the whole plate as an STL and drop it into the final nesting suite (Carbon's nesting software in our case). This still isn't a great solution, we're starting to use Oqton for our printer nesting and having to use a third-party nesting program in this way isn't compatible with that workflow.

That's interesting, glad to know it isn't just us. For what it's worth, my previous articulators let the models hollow properly, there's just something about this one design that throws a wrench in things.
I might reach out to 3Shape about this, if it's a known problem they'll probably have more to say about it.

Hope you're luckier than me hahaha last time I called for articulators they said wowww you did this yourself? I was like euh yeah.....
our articulators have our logo as well. it was funny I felt smart XD

 

[Sevan P]

If it is just to hollow it then press CTRL+T in model builder, at the bottom expand the last tab model something, check the hollow box 2.25 thickness and go, this a temp fix, permanent would be set in the model profile in the control panel.
Also i have printed many solid models on the M2 no issues. Just a waste or resin.