You can use Print3D to print 3D prototypes of your models when you have a 3D printer installed locally.
SOLIDWORKS
supports 3D printing of models that contain surface bodies and graphics bodies only if
they form a watertight manifold volume. You can 3D print surfaces or graphics bodies,
provided they form a watertight manifold volume. Bodies that do not form a watertight
manifold volume are temporarily hidden and bodies that form a watertight manifold volume
are 3D printed.
If your 3D printer manufacturer uses the SOLIDWORKS 3D Print API, the 3D printing rapid prototyping dialog box opens to assist you in printing.
Microsoft's Windows 3D printing flow uses an XML-based data format called 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF). Software applications that support this format convert their data to 3MF format and send it to the operating system's print spooler for 3D printing.
With your CAD design open in SOLIDWORKS, you can open the Print3D
PropertyManager by clicking
.
In the PropertyManager, you can specify options on the
Settings and Preview tabs:
- Select a printer from a list of available printers.
- Orient and scale your model within the print volume defined by the
selected printer.
- Select print options for quality, infill percentage (density),
supports, and raft.
- Save the file to a format used for 3D printing.
- Run preview analyses to evaluate the current print job.
- Identify faces that require support.
- Display striation lines to determine whether the print resolution is
sufficiently fine.