3D Printing from Rhino

Having too thin parts on a model can result in fragile parts or non compatibility with some printers.

The chart below will give you an estimation of the minimum wall thickness to meet with printing requirements.

Type of printer	Minimum wall thickness
FDM	0.6 mm to 1 mm Depending on geometry and size
SLA	Strong: 2 mm Flexible: 1 mm Delicate: 0.5 mm

Rhino uses NURBS surfaces to describe a model’s geometry.

In order to be exported as a valid .stl, your Rhino object must be a closed solid. You can use the ShowEdges command in Rhino to display naked edges and find unjoined edges on your mesh.

Creating a mesh from your NURBS surfaces:

1. Select the surfaces you want to mesh
2. Enter into the command line _Mesh
3. Click on Detailed Controls in the Polygon Mesh Options
4. In the Detailed Option window enter the following settings:
   • Maximum angle: 20
   • Maximum edge length: 6
   • Minimum edge length: 0.0001
   • Maximum distance, edge to surface: 0.001 (< 1/2 printer resolution)

If you have a complex model with multiple shells and nested parts, follow these recommendations:

• Export each shell as an STL file (one STL for every part)
• Select each shell in its relative position so that when you import your STLs in your 3D printing slicer each item will drop into place with its given coordinates