Sorry to say but still you are arguing as you are saying there is no requirement of this feature in Preform. Infact there is a serious requirement of this feature in Preform as some people don’t always want to switch between other softwares just because to Hollow the mesh.
It is equally important to update the hardware as well as software.
Sorry to say, you’re still not understanding what I’ve actually said.
You want it, a few others want it. Yet there are 1000s of other FL users who aren’t logging on to complain about the lack of this feature (because either they don’t need it, or they have some other method that meets their needs). So this isn’t a “required” feature, it’s not indispensable, it’s just something that a few users would like rather than have to (easily IMO) figure out another way to accomplish the same thing.
Companies operate on budgets that dictate how many people they can hire and what those people can work on. No company in the world implements features for their products simply because someone asks. They prioritize the work to favor the tasks that maximize value for the largest segments of their customer base. Convenience features that only a few have requested generally end up at the very bottom of the list and so, may never see the light of day.
That’s how product development works. Larger well established companies might have deeper pockets and can reach further down the list, so some companies that serve a common market might implement a feature that others don’t. But all companies that develop products prioritize this way and few if any do every single thing their users ask them to do.
See i don’t know 1000 peoples but in this forum you are the only one who is saying this that we don’t need this Hollow feature. If you know how to use CAD it doesn’t mean other knows that software as well. If Formlabs will add this feature in Preform than it will help a lot of people.
I would also welcome this feature. Since I sometimes print quite complex parts, I could place them in preform and then hollow them out and make the vents in the appropriate places. That would then fit right away. Currently, unfortunately, it happens quite often that I don’t place the vent holes in the right place and I have to edit and re-place the part again in other software. That always costs a lot of time.
So that’s why I’m definitely in favor of this hollow function.
Been following this topic for a while and I just want to say I would also like a hollow feature. Doing it in Meshmixer is okay, but sometimes I’ll hollow it and add vents and then it turns out the orientation isn’t quite right for Preform so I have to go back into Meshmixer and try again. If I could orient it to the best position in Preform and then hollow it it would be much more efficient.
To maximize your chances of getting this feature, then, you need to find a way to get more people to ask for it. The forum has over 12K users. So even a dozen people saying “I want this, please” is only 0.1% of the forum user base.
I’ll help.
I don’t feel that I really need this feature, but if I was implemented in Preform, I would be happy to use it for at least some of the things I print.
I would request to all 12K users and to Formlabs please support this Hollow feature, as this is a very useful feature and we need this in Preform. It will make our work easy. Please 
Does FormLabs maintain a public list of feature requests somewhere? Some developers do that and base developer efforts, at least in part, according to the number of customers requesting a feature.
If you are designing in CAD, just use your CAD software to hollow the model in the first place. If you are importing a mesh body (example: STL) and need to hollow it, well CAD tools can also do that 
If you do not have a CAD tool, consider using Fusion 360 from Autodesk. It can hollow both Solid bodies and Mesh bodies and has a tight integration with PreForm. Fusion 360 also happens to be free to the hobbyist community.
If you want to hollow a model, and add lattices inside to both lightweight it and make it structurally stiff, and add drain holes and automatically generate plugs so you can close the holes after printing the model, I recommend trying out Netfabb. Here is a video on how to do this: https://youtu.be/t7xC1znLDec
here is how you can download a trial version and use it for 30 days: https://www.autodesk.com/products/netfabb
Sualp Ozel
Senior Product Manager
Fusion 360 and Netfabb
Autodesk
@sozel, this may be diverging slightly from the topic, but not everyone is using it on a hobby basis and would require a paid version of your Autodesk software. I don’t see that being an issue, but maybe if Autodesk provided a NON-subscription based CAD software, I’d be willing to use it. I personally do not want to “rent” my software to have NOTHING when I stop paying.
I am certainly not here to talk about subscription vs purchase for software. That’s for others to talk about and users to decide on what they wish to choose.
I was simply offering options to solve a problem. Some for free, some for a fee. All these options allow you to create a .form file of the hollow model which solves the problem this thread was asking about.
Come to think of it you can also use 2 other autodesk technology for free to solve this specific problem
I use Netfabb basic to look for geometry errors in my models. My understanding is that Preform uses something derived from Netfabb to make repairs, but I want to see what’s wrong before it’s fixed so I can (if I so choose) go back in to my CAD software to fix the error there. Been using it since I can’t remember when, a long time. Great tool, especially for the price.
The thing is why we need to use two softwares just to hollow the mesh, its is time consuming.
Do we have two refrigerators in our home one for water bottle and one for ice cubes ? 
OpenSCAD is free. Import .stl into OpenSCAD, hollow in OpenSCAD, print .stl. OpenSCAD isn’t fast, but it is free.
I’m sorry Randy, but you can’t have this both ways.
You made the argument that this (Preform) is a professional tool, made for professionals and technical users, not for hobbyists, and as such, it shouldn’t have these features.
I brought it up before, and br4n_d0n drove it home, that professional tools DO INDEED have these features, and I can’t think of a more professional oriented tool/software than the software that 3DSystems uses for their printers.
Much as you try to defend FormLabs current software model, it goes to show you that most of us do indeed think that features such as hollowing and vent holes are a necessity for SLA printing and should be included in this software. Having to go to a 3rd party software and spend and additional 30-40 minutes to do something that Preform should be able to do in 1-2 minutes, is anything but a “professional” workflow.
Unfortunately, FormLabs past modus operandi has shown that they don’t feel they need to listen to what users have to say, as long as users are not united and there are always those that are willing to let them get away with ignoring the situation
I understand that there are more than a few folks out there that like using OpenSCAD, but the majority of us prefer using tools that do not require scripting in order to draw something. I know I’d much rather use a drawing interface, than having to type something on a command line in order to generate an object.
So, if someone is not willing or capable of using something like MeshMixer to hollow out an object, I doubt they’d be willing to dabble in OpenSCAD
12K registered users of this forum. Maybe a dozen or so outspoken users complaining about the lack of this feature and insisting that it’s urgently necessary. That’s not “most of us”, it’s around one tenth of one percent of the user base.
I’ve been 3D printing with Formlabs since 2014 and I have never lamented the lack of this feature in Preform. My experience seems to be more consistent with the vast majority of users.
Would I use it if it was present? Probably for some quick and dirty stuff that I use Meshmixer for now. But as an engineer making functional parts, I much prefer to do this in CAD where I have the best possible control over the placement of holes and where wall thicknesses can be minimal vs. where they need to be maximized.
So I have to continue to disagree. Only a small number of users think this feature is important. I for one would rather FL focus their engineering efforts on other areas than waste it on the implementation of a complex feature that it is clear only a few FL users want.
I’m sorry Randy, but you can’t have this both ways.
I didn’t understand this at all. What was “both ways” about my comments?
Carbon, as an example, has gone a step further and released lattice features in addition to a hollow option.
only because most of us just use another software and wait for upgrades…
