I hope this is the right place to ask for help….. I am completely new to 3D printing let alone designing anything.
I have a design I am trying to make hollow. I would like it to be a planter. I managed to get the pouch of the kangaroo open but I need the print to be completely hollow. A photo of my first design is attached. I will scale it up as I get the design right, I just don’t want to waste filament.
After some research I tried using vase mode but I keep getting a message to use supports but you can’t use supports in vase mode.
The most important question first: Why do you want it hollow?
If you just want to save filament, you can do that via the infill settings, where you can specify to use less, but using none at all is not recommended.
Do you want it hollow for a specific purpose, e.g. to fill it with potting soil? Then you need a program that can edit mesh objects, such as Blender or Meshmixer.
Yes, a bigger hole… not completely hollow. I’ve I have tried blender so I will look at tinkercad. I am sure once I figure out how to use the right tool in the program it will all fall into place.
in my 50’s, never used any programs other than email…. lol
Building on this great comment, I would make it even simpler by just adding a negative sphere. This area will then not be printed. If there is soil on it, no one will be able to see how accurate it is anyway.
Also… another question. I have ABS and PLA support filament which I will probably not use in the near future… can I use that for my practise prints to save my filament. I am sure I read somewhere that someone did that for their practice pieces.
For those who want to make a model completely hollow, download Chitubox basic from their official site. Basic is free and that’s all you need.
Chitubox is really a resin slicer but you don’t care for that particular application. Just open your stl, no need to select printer or design a plate to fit, just select hollow in the top menu icons, set your wall thickness and apply.
Hi Philch, Just want to say thankyou as I seem to be having great success with this program… not yet finished but it appears to be the easiest out of all the programs and does exactly what I need it to do…
My son has a resin printer so it has even inspired me to try his printer later.
I have a goofier way to do it, but it can be a little tricky and someone else probably has a better way to do it.
I googled this same issue, because I typically just use the shapes available like cylinders and cubes, etc. and I came across this thread.
Then I thought about something I had done the other day that was kind of unrelated, but worked. Save your kangaroo under another file name (let’s say Kangaroo2.3mf), then cut the head and tail off of it.
Shrink it by 20% and save it.
Open up your original file. Then add negative part and where it says load, click on Kangaroo2.3mf. It will load your file as a negative part that you can position inside your solid kangaroo that will follow the contours exactly.
