I actually did start with solids (attached). Everything seemed fine at that point.

Now, what what weird was that when I did the lofts (second attached) and connected up the "corners" of the part, that's when the issues arose. Before that point in time, the part behaved as one nice, big manipulatable solid. However, the lofting created those lines intersecting the insides of the large semicircles on either side of the part running diagonally, creating what look like triangles. They were not there on the original model - the lofting created them, as odd as that sounds. At that point, the part became unprintable as per Netfabb, the lofting somehow (I'm surmising) pulling or altering the curves that it was based off of.

The main solid (first attached) passed Netfabb and Shapeways before the lofting was attempted. Interestingly, its only when the lofting takes place that the main solid (really, the semicircles and triangular regions) become "stressed" and unprintable, hence my desire to just make the entire thing a solid.

I eliminated those little areas you pointed out on my original attachment to clear things up for clarity.

Thanks for any ideas,

Bob

Hi Bob,

> I actually did start with solids (attached). Everything seemed fine at that point.

Do you mean your attached file "Remade Funnel 5-1.3dm" ? That does not have just one solid in it, I'm seeing 13 curves, 6 open surfaces, and 8 solids in there...

Here are just the open surfaces being shown - see how many pieces are just sticking right through each other? Those types of areas are not ready to be joined together into a solid:


So maybe I'm completely not understanding what you are asking about, but that file #1 is a long way from being a finished up single solid. If that was accepted as a 3D printable model that's kind of a huge stroke of luck involved, it's not really ready to be printed yet.

To be 3D printed, you've got to have the model configured as just one single solid piece, not a bunch of separate surfaces and many different solids that may be sitting next to each other or sticking partially through each other. In some circumstances it could be possible that could work but if so it's a lucky coincidence and not an expected thing.

- Michael