I’m new to both 3D printing and the PreForm forums, and I had a few questions about importing geometry (specifically rings with exact measurements) that I created in Autodesk Maya.
When I import a ring into PreForm, I get a warning that the object is too small and I need to choose either millimeters or inches. I select millimeters since that’s Maya’s default, but after that the scale still comes in incorrect.
In Maya, the Y-axis is height—does PreForm work the same way?
So far, I’ve printed five rings: some came out way too large, others too small, and only one was the correct size. I noticed that for the one that worked, I had scaled the model by “10” in PreForm. Is this the proper workflow—import and then always scale by 10? Or am I missing a step somewhere?
I’d really appreciate any guidance so I can avoid wasting more time and materials. Thanks in advance for your help!
Hello,
The size in Preform is supposed to be exact, you shouldn’t need to upscale by 10.
Are you sure you modeled at the right size in Maya ? It looks like you made a part in mm thinking it was in cm.
Preform is a Z Up if I am not mistaken but you can and should rotate the part to print well on supports.
To be sure of the dimensions of the part you can clic on a part and go in dimension and it will give you the size of the bounding box of the part.
Réka from Formlabs Support here. Sorry to read that you’re having issues with your first prints! In PreForm, the Z-axis is height.
Could you record a short video of your screen when you open your model in PreForm? My colleagues in our support team could help you best if you could open a support case here and mention any necessary information, you can also upload the video there. I’m sure they’ll get your issue sorted out in no time!