How to fix mesh errors in Blender

Using native and free add-ons for Blender to fix some of the common issues in Blender, created by using Booleans or the Inset function.
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[@SaltyThinker]

Thank You!!!! This is one of the most important things to know in Blender and there are barely any deep detailed tutorials about it. Thank you

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No problem at all. I totally agree that it's something that just isn't covered enough. In one of my recent videos I have done a full workload that includes some more issue fixing at the end if you're interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHKsop-BitmUY7c

[@ICY-iC]

love that tutorial, just bought that add-on and felt like the way blender was meant to be. Those double shells gave me so much hard times, this fixes it super easily, thx!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😁 Great to hear its of use 👍🏻

[@richardokeeffe8375]

Love that these are with printing in mind

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Its something that seems to be missing from most workflows (probably fairly as the person is focused on it from a CG perspective).

[@luisvaltierra740]

I been trying to get my model to Unity and as a starter in Blender it gave me error and thanks to this video I think I know why, now I can fix it and continue with my project. Thank you very much sir.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😁😁😁 Really glad the video could help out and thanks so much for taking the time to comment. It's really appreciated.

[@lauragarnham77]

oh my, that mesh clean up option will save me so much time! thank you!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No worries. It's not always perfect but it does save a lot of time for sure.

[@twohats8462]

How do we get the free add-on kit?

[@doron910]

very very helpful video to those modifying stl files for 3d printing! fantastic.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Really glad its being helpful. 👍🏻😁

[@FragornIrik]

Hi, maybe this is something you already know but you don't feel like it make much of a difference, but when I learnt about keeping "ctrl" pressed to toggle snapping it changed my workflow greatly for several processes. For example, with what you said in the first part of the video of reducing clicks in mind, I would say the last part about machine tool of fixing some alignment problems could be much faster this way. For example, for getting the inset vertex into place: select vertex snapping (but do not turn it on), select vertex -> g -> x -> go over the other vertex while pressing ctrl. Or for aligning the cube vertex, select vertex, g -> shift+z -> go over the vertex in the bottom while pressing ctrl and then make the same with z instead of shift+z and go over any other three top vertex. Apart from that, thanks for your videos, it is one of the few channels that focus on modeling for 3D printing and you address a lot of interesting issues.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Really good comment and very much appreciated. It is something I know but I probably should have put that in for the exact reasons you mentioned, though normally when I am using snapping I am using it a lot in a row so it helps to have it kept on. But thats my workflow and it isnt good to assume the workflow of others follows that.

[@TitusKrakenDesigns]

lifesaver! THX a lot! great video again!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No worries. 👌

[@GeorgeNacpil]

very helpful thanks

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No problem at all 😁

[@embacherjames]

Thanks!

[@ChippWalters]

Nice video. Pretty sure you don't need to worry about non-flat faces. STL automatically triangulates all ngons. Also, when modeling for 3D printing, always use EXACT Booleans as they will generate much cleaner and more manifold meshes. While I didn't see you model this object, the artifacts appear to be similar to those generated by fast Booleans.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Cheers Chip. Love your add ons by the 👌🏼 Totally agree on using the exact boolean wherever you can for the reasons you mention and agree you don't need to worry about the non-flat faces. Though I do often like to triangulate some non-flat faces myself as of they aren't flat it means you can control where the "edge" gets put and that can really change the shape of the object you've made. Though normally that's an issue for more extreme non-flat faces. 👍🏻

[@falsenamen5002]

cool addon

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Totally agree. Thanks. 😁

[@MrCrazymmogamer]

Which of the errors from 3d print addon are neccesary to get rid off and which can stay for 3d printing? Do we need to completly clean up a model from for example every single intersecting faces or non flat faces? Or if 2 or 3 small of those error wont be fixed it will completly make our model unprintable? Asking coz cleaning every single mesh error on model with displaced texture or remeshed and sculped looks like impossible task.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Intersecting faces can cause a lot of issues, as will non manifold errors. Non flat faces can cause issues with later booleans but can often be fixed with the triangulate modifier or by exporting the stl and taking it into Microsoft 3d builder. It's a free program and generally works pretty well. It can fix some other errors as well but the more errors the more issues it will have.

[@bluearts6075]

thx a loot my frind

[@ArtisansofVaul]

My pleasure!

[@TAG-31]

Are Zero Faces and Thin Faces OK to have on the mesh? We just need to get rid of Non-Manifold Edges, Non-Flat Faces, and Intersect Faces, correct?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Yeah. Zero faces means that the face is very small. I believe you can set what face size sets that off but I just ignore it, I think it's more a concern when doing design for CG (but don't quote me on that). Thin faces (I believe) means that the place where the face is is very close to another (so would make a thin thickness of a model). Depending on the angle of your print that could cause an issue but I've never had any concerns

[@shmuelisrl]

There is a feature in mesh machine called unf*ck and it can easily fix the inset issue wile maintaining the bevel on the inset not aka merging them, and can do much more. look it up.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks man. I already use Mesh Machine, its such a great product but I appreciate you bringing it to peoples attention! I just wanted to focus on things that are free to begin with. I want to do a whole video on it at some point as its ability to fix geometry issues with booleans and everything it can do with bevels really deserves a video on its own. The offset cut feature alone is something that could be its own video for example.

[@floyd1411]

yesss!! tutorial for mesh machine :)

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks. Not sure if people are wanting more on Mesh Machin3.

[@floyd1411]

@@ArtisansofVaul wait ammm this was machine tools right in the tutorial? I am just going through all of your vids, would you perhaps have one for mesh machine?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@floyd1411 I don't have a dedicated Mesh Machin3 one yet. It's been used in other videos but not a stand alone video.

[@floyd1411]

@@ArtisansofVaul ahh i see what u did there. fine .. i ll watch all your videos :) Ps. I really love your tutorials. very well done and explained.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@floyd1411 lmao. That honestly wasn't my intent but I wouldn't complain. Are you looking for a particular function? I could try and see if I can fit it into a future video at some point yo save you hunting.

[@Hurtone]

Some good pointers here for sure. I am just so confused about 1. why the super high poly? 2. why boolean all the parts together instead of just join and leave it as it is? I can see using boolean if you print things hollow, but this is surely not going to be the case here?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Good questions. So: 1. For 3d printing the higher the poly the smoother the print. While this is intended for 28mm so this might be overboard I have had a number of my designs used for scaled up prints so its just ensuring that whatever the use the model should scale well. 2. This is a bit of a bugbear of mine. Just joining the objects together is really bad form for a number of reasons. Some 3d printing programs have issues working out the objects so will put supports in odd places. In other instances as programs try to work out the joins between the joined bits they create some horrible geometry. And finally if youy watch my tutorial on importing STL to Blender you will see the results of just joining things on the BFG ship, it makes objects some programs cant make sense of. I want people to be able to use my designs as a base to modify them for their own purposes (by bringing things into Blender) so I try to make so that process as easy as possible.

[@Born_Stellar]

after only a few weeks of learning blender my no. 1 goal is to make a proper object. sometimes with leaving things just joined the slicer can't make sense of what to even print.

[@darrennew8211]

Another great way to align something you're moving is "CAD Transforms." It's basically snapping on steroids. Really helpful if you're doing hard-surface technical stuff in 3D printing, and you want the center of this face to by on the same Y value as the middle of that edge and things like that.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I'll have to check that out for sure. It sounds quite like Quick Snap ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/aquucn6hipdjbK8 ) so it will be good to compare. Thanks a lot 👍

[@darrennew8211]

@@ArtisansofVaul I didn't want to plug a competing channel here ;-) but the best place to look is probably Maker Tales. He has a quick video and a whole 50-minute "everything you need to know" video. It's a great channel for blender 3d printing stuff.

[@darrennew8211]

@@ArtisansofVaul Yeah, it looks like CAD Transforms the same idea turned up to 11. I like that you can select a bunch of verts, then move them so some unselected vert matches somewhere, for example. (I.e., the snap point doesn't have to be one of the selected verts.) CT also has similar things for rotating and scaling, which I use less often, but it's nice to be able to say "move the prongs of the hook so the inner faces are absolute 32mm apart" and such. I'm gonna grab Quick Snap, because it looks a lot simpler than CAD Transforms, and doing what he's doing in that video is 95% of what I do anyway. 🙂

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@darrennew8211 Sounds interesting. I generally use Construction Lines for more complex movements like you have described. Again it will be good to compare. I'll go have a look at that now. Is it in Blender Market?

[@kutubox6135]

So what about non-manifold edges ? Thanks

[@ArtisansofVaul]

That's going to depend on the cause. Alot of the time the 3D print toolbox make manifold button will fix them. Other than that I'd probably need to see the issue.

[@unknownuser8454]

Y do ppl say Z as zed?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I imagine it's a regional thing.

[@shmuelisrl]

Shouldn’t triangulating the mesh get rid of non flat faces

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Sorry, I'm not quite sure what you mean...

[@shmuelisrl]

@@ArtisansofVaul try it. It gets rid of engons and computers like triangles. Use the triangulate modifier set to beauty. So I’m thinking it should solve a lot of issues especially if you’re not deforming it

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@shmuelisrl Oh I see what you mean. Yeah, I have done a video that includes fixing these sorts of issues here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXmbnZSbrrp8r7c But in this instance it wouldn't be suitable as it would then create some ugly mesh for then extruding from (which was the aim in the video). The triangulate modifier is something I would generally use towards the end of a project. At this stage I would say something like Mesh Machine or manually fixing it is the best option.

[@mostafaborzouyan4967]

talked too much.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😅 Fair enough.

[@WhoIsJohnblack]

God bless you young man...

[@ArtisansofVaul]

🤣 Not that young any more but I'll take it 😁👍🏻

[@WhoIsJohnblack]

@@ArtisansofVaul I'm in my 40's your younger than me surely. Lol. Keep it up either way praying for your success.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@WhoIsJohnblack Haha. Only just! 🤣

[@WhoIsJohnblack]

@@ArtisansofVaul 😁