3DQuads Print Ready
Documentation

Step 1 — Printer Profile

Select your printer to automatically fill all dimensional parameters used by subsequent steps.

Built-in presets (13)

• FDM: Bambu Lab P1S, X1 Carbon, A1 · Prusa MK4S, Mini+ · Creality Ender 3 V3, K1 Max · Anycubic Kobra 3 · Artillery Sidewinder X4 Plus · Voron 2.4 350mm
• Resin: Elegoo Mars 4 Ultra, Saturn 4 Ultra
• Custom: all fields are left editable — enter your own values manually

Selecting a preset auto-fills: Printer Type, Build Volume (X/Y/Z), Nozzle Diameter, Min Wall Thickness, Layer Height, and — importantly — the Thickness Threshold used in Step 4.

Step 2 — Scale & Units

Ensures the Blender scene and the object's transform are configured correctly for real-world millimetre output.

Validate Scale

Checks three conditions simultaneously:

• Scene unit system is Metric
• Scene unit_scale is 0.001 (so 1 Blender Unit = 1 mm)
• The active object has no unapplied scale (all axes = 1.0)

Fix Scale to Millimeters

Corrects all three conditions in a single click: sets Metric, sets scale_length = 0.001, applies the object's scale transform. Supports undo.

Target Unit

Controls how the object dimensions are displayed in the panel. Internally everything stays in Blender Units (= mm). Options: Millimeters, Centimeters, Inches.

Build volume fit

After validation, the panel shows the object's dimensions alongside the printer's build volume. If the model overflows an axis, a warning indicates which axis to address — either by scaling the model or by splitting it in Step 6.

Step 3 — Mesh Health

Runs five targeted mesh checks that are the most common causes of slicer failures and print defects.

The five checks

Fix order (Fix All)

When Fix All Issues is used, repairs run in this order to avoid cascade failures:

1. Delete loose vertices
2. Delete zero-area faces
3. Recalculate face normals outward
4. Dissolve degenerate edges + fill boundary holes

Step 4 — Wall Thickness

Identifies areas of the mesh that are thinner than the printer's minimum printable wall thickness. Thin walls either fail to print entirely or collapse during printing.

How the analysis works

For each face, a ray is cast from the face's centre point in the direction of the inverted face normal (i.e., inward through the mesh). The distance to the first opposing surface it hits is recorded as the local wall thickness at that face.

Thickness Threshold

The minimum acceptable wall thickness in mm. Auto-populated from the printer preset's Min Wall Thickness value. Adjust manually for your specific filament or print settings.

Results

• Number of faces below the threshold
• Minimum thickness found (thinnest wall in the mesh)
• Maximum thickness found

Thickness Overlay

Applies a vertex colour attribute (PrintReady_Thickness) to the mesh and enables it in the viewport. Requires Solid shading with Color: Attribute enabled in Viewport Shading options.

Select Thin Faces

Enters Edit Mode and selects all faces whose measured thickness is below the threshold. Use this to manually thicken those areas with the Solidify modifier, Shrink/Fatten (Alt+S), or manual modelling.

Step 5 — Overhang Detection

Identifies faces that overhang at an angle steeper than the printer can bridge without support material. FDM printers typically handle up to 45–50°; resin printers vary more widely.

Overhang Angle

The threshold angle in degrees (0–90, default 45). Faces whose outward normal points more than this angle below horizontal are classified as overhangs. A value of 45° means any face steeper than 45° from the horizontal plane requires supports.

Overhang Overlay

Applies a PrintReady_Overhang vertex colour attribute. Requires Solid shading with Color: Attribute.

Suggest Best Orientation

Tests six candidate rotations of the object and reports which one produces the fewest overhang faces, along with the percentage improvement over the current orientation:

Rotations tested (degrees):
  Current (0, 0, 0)
  Rotate X +90  →  front face down
  Rotate X −90  →  back face down
  Rotate Y +90  →  right face down
  Rotate Y −90  →  left face down
  Rotate Z +90  →  side orientation

Step 6 — Model Splitter

Splits a model that is too large for the printer's build volume into multiple pieces. Each piece has flat, capped faces at the cut plane so the parts can be glued or fastened together after printing.

Split Mode

The primary choice that determines how cuts are defined:

• AUTO (default) — automatically detects which axes overflow the build volume and calculates the minimum cuts needed. Choose a split axis (X / Y / Z / Auto) and a piece count.
• MANUAL — define each cut independently. For every cut you set its axis (X, Y, or Z), its position along the object, and an optional tilt angle. This lets you mix axes freely — e.g. one cut on X and another on Z.

AUTO Mode

Select Split Axis (X / Y / Z, or Auto to detect automatically) and Pieces (2–10). The extension calculates evenly-spaced cuts along each overflowing axis.

MANUAL Mode

Set Pieces to control how many cut controls appear (n pieces = n−1 cuts). For each cut:

• Axis — which world axis this specific cut is perpendicular to (X, Y, or Z)
• Position — slider from 0% to 100% of the object's extent along the chosen axis, with a live millimetre readout
• Tilt (°) — tilts the cut plane up to ±85° away from perpendicular

Increasing the piece count only resets newly-added cut slots — existing configurations are preserved.

Validate Cuts

Available in MANUAL mode. Checks that every piece produced by the current cut settings fits within the build volume. Cuts on different axes are validated independently per axis — a cut on X does not constrain Y or Z spans.

If any span exceeds the build volume, a red error box appears in the panel identifying the exact gap (e.g. "X axis — gap between Cut 2 and Cut 3: 245.0 mm exceeds build volume 220 mm"). Fix the offending slider and click Validate again.

Preview Cuts

Toggles a GPU viewport overlay showing the build volume (orange wireframe) and cut planes (red translucent quads) directly in the 3D viewport. No objects are created in the Outliner. The overlay updates live as you move position or tilt sliders — no re-click required. Click the button again to hide the overlay.

Split Model

Triggers a confirmation dialog, then:

1. Creates copies of the original mesh, one per piece
2. Bisects each copy using bmesh.ops.bisect_plane
3. Fills the open cut edges using edgeloop_fill (falls back to triangle_fill for complex shapes)
4. Removes duplicate vertices and recalculates normals
5. Places all parts in a "Print Ready Parts" collection
6. Hides the original object (preserved for Undo Split)

Undo Split

Removes all objects from "Print Ready Parts", deletes the collection, and restores the original object's visibility.

Step 7 — Export

Exports the prepared model (or split parts) to a slicer-ready file format.

Formats

Export Directory

The folder where files will be saved. If left empty and the .blend file is saved, the directory defaults to the same folder as the .blend file.

Apply Modifiers

When enabled (default), all modifiers on the mesh are baked into the exported geometry. Disable only if you want to export the base mesh without modifier effects.

File Name Prefix

Text prepended to every exported file name. Default: print_. Example output: print_MyObject.stl.

Export for Printing

Smart export: if the model has been split, exports every object in the "Print Ready Parts" collection as a separate file. Otherwise exports the active mesh object.

Quick Export (STL)

One-click export as STL to the same folder as the .blend file. The button is greyed out if the .blend file has not been saved yet.

Scale correction

The exporter applies a scale factor of unit_scale × 1000. With the recommended scene setup (unit_scale = 0.001), this results in a scale factor of 1.0 — the file is exported at true millimetre size without any re-scaling.