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Outline

To increase the chances of a successful print, make sure your design has a solid base to build upon.

  1. If possible, make sure your object has a large flat area that will print first and support the rest of the print
  2. Making sure no features are beneath the part, or lower than you intended them to be

Drag the camera to view the underside of your part. Here you'll notice the POLAR lettering extends beneath the base of the nameplate. This is not good!

Here, we need to lower the green base. Select the part, then:

  1. Use the small CONE to adjust the Z height/location of the base
  2. Drag until the Z height value (the distance between object and workplane) is 0.00

These 3 objects do not make great prints, on their own. Can you spot why?

  1. Left: The blue ball is a lot of mass! It's only supported by one small chicken leg, with small toe features and a skinny ankle. This print is likely to fail.
  2. Middle: The red figure is standing on top of a blue ball, that has almost no surface area on the workplane. This print is also likely to fail.
  3. Right: This small ring has almost no surface area on the workplane.

Think about it like this. Let's say you had this design in real life, in your hands. If you were to set it down on the table in the same orientation shown in the photo, would the object stand on its own? Or would it topple over? Use this same rule of thumb when thinking about your design, and you'll have fewer print failures.