I am new to Preform software, Just got a 3L printer last month. I am using Preform 3.13.0 and have been unable to get any Stl files to load directly from File/Load. I have to drag and drop a file 4 to 5 times before it will finally open the file. Then it will randomly crash when I try to do anything to the part. My Stl files are created in SolidWorks.
Uninstall and reinstall Preform. If that doesn’t fix it, post an example STL and someone can try it on their system to see if it also fails.
i have un-installed & re-installed 4 times now & nothing has changed. i will try to upload a simple file to see if someone can see something different. this file works fine in the three other versions of 3D printing software that I use.
Magnet Sheild - Top.STL (78.0 KB)
Your file contains no geometry errors (checked with NetFabb and Meshmixer). It loads first time and every time for me in Preform. The only issue with the file is that it’s not specifying the measurement base. When I load the model, Preform tells me it’s very small and asks if I want to import with mm or inch as the measurement base. None of my STLs have ever done that…
What is your computer? Windows or Mac? What version of the OS?
Thank you Randy for checking into it. I am using Windows 10 on a Dell with lots of power set up for Engineering CAD use. I operate a print lab so I am getting my STL files from multiple users (all using SolidWorks). I have also pulled STL files from several other sources (Grabcad for example) and get the same results. My next step is to install PreForm on a different computer and see what happens. Again, thank you. Doyle
It’s very strange behavior. Programs are deterministic, or at least they’re supposed to be. Each time you load a file, the program should do exactly the same thing while processing it, and if that leads to a crash, it should crash consistently every single time. That you can retry and eventually you’re successful suggests to me that it could be a hardware issue. Though I struggle to imagine a scenario where Preform is more demanding of the HW than SolidWorks (my workstation makes an audible grunt when I fire up SW 
).
So yeah, the next thing to try is another system.
Are you in a corporate environment where there’s an IT department that’s managing your system?
Sounds like to me whom ever sent you the original .stl didn’t export it correctly concerning the size. Could also be the issue but i also downloaded your stl and it’s really small. Preform asked what to load it as mm or inches. But it did load and is tiny.
It did load though with know problem and the actual file does not seem to have any errors.
If you choose “inches” instead of “mm” it loads and is not tiny.
@dramsey_kreg have you contacted Formlabs Customer Support? They have a checklist of possible Windows issues that they can run through (some of them are in this article). Usually this kind of problem is related to out of date graphics drivers, or PreForm launching with the wrong graphics driver.
UPDATE: got a new computer last week & finally got everything updated & installed. Files open and am able to operate without crashing every time I touch a part. The customer support article of Windows issues did help and it appears that the most likely cause was the video driver.
THANKS everyone for your help.
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