How to prepare your 3D file

1. Units STL carries no units. State in your request whether the model is in mm, cm or inches. Otherwise we guess — and guessing can cost a failed print.

2. Closed mesh The model must be watertight: no holes, no inverted normals, no loose faces. Most CAD packages can repair this automatically.

3. Wall thickness Below roughly 1 mm walls become fragile on a typical FDM printer. If the part must take load, aim for 2 mm or more.

4. Tolerances and fit FDM is not injection moulding. Expect deviations of a few tenths of a millimetre and add clearance where parts mate. Tell us which dimensions are critical.

5. Orientation and surface Layers are visible, and the bottom face is usually cleanest when flat. Tell us which side faces up in use and we will choose orientation accordingly.

File formats STL, OBJ and 3MF can be printed directly. 3MF is best because units and colours travel with it. STEP is a CAD file: we can work on it further, but it requires manual conversion.